


The Adventures of Cat and Kitten

by SunAndMoon (LadyMorgaine)



Series: Skinship Collection [4]
Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alpha Choi Seungcheol | S.Coups, Alpha Chwe Hansol | Vernon, Alpha Kwon Soonyoung | Hoshi, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Not K-Pop Idols, Anal Beads, Anal Fingering, Anal Plug, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Cat/Human Hybrids, Dirty Talk, Lingerie, M/M, Masturbation in Shower, Mating Bites, Mating Bond, Minor Boo Seungkwan/Chwe Hansol | Vernon, Omega Boo Seungwan, Omega Lee Jihoon | Woozi, Roleplay Mentions, Soonhoon - Freeform, Wax Play
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-22
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-07-01 03:40:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 42,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15765855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyMorgaine/pseuds/SunAndMoon
Summary: Kwon Soonyoung receives an invitation to work on his masters program at an elite university and accepts, lured by a stellar dance program and some great benefits. He never imagined meeting someone like Lee Jihoon though. An inveterate basher of faces and limb-stealing cuddler, Lee Jihoon brings out the forever in him. Kwon Soonyoung is whipped, so very whipped.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Please note this is as NSFW as I get, which may be more than expected. This is strictly for adults.

“…and this is the new studio that we recently built for our honours programme students,” his guide said, leading him into a massive, brilliantly lit studio. “You can book it on the department website if the smaller one we assigned you isn’t big enough.”

 

Kwon Soonyoung looked around the room, eyebrows arching at the floor-to-ceiling mirrors, the state-of-the-art sound section, even the tiny little bar. It was as big as some stages he had seen, plus the whir of…

 

He cocked his head to the ceiling, sensitive ears catching the barely there sound of industrial quality HVAC systems. It was the sound that clued him in, but his nose that settled it. “Bio pumps?” he asked, using the slang term. “That’s impressive, I didn’t even notice as I walked in, but I guess such a prestigious institute would have them right?”

 

The wolf hybrid at his side wrinkled her nose. “We have a blend of all the secondary genders as dancers here,” she said primly. “We believe in the freedom to pursue your dreams no matter what your biology is, as long as you can clearly communicate it. So yes… we have ‘bio pumps’. As a master level student, you’ll be expected to be run a class that has a mix as well. I hope that won’t be a problem. You’re an alpha yourself, right?”

 

Soonyoung grinned lazily at her. “It won’t be a problem at all. And yes, I’m an alpha, but my momma raised me right. I would have been okay, even without them.”

 

“It’s been a long time since we last saw a tiger hybrid at the university,” she murmured curiously. “We have the standard breakdowns here, of course, but very few large cats. In fact, the only other cat-type we have at the moment… ah, here one of them is. Kwon Soonyoung-ssi, meet Lee Jihoon-ssi. He’s a double-major, Vocal Composition and Dance.”

 

Soonyoung stared past her, narrow eyes widening. He half-thought it was a girl at first, despite what she said, but as the guy came close to them there was no disguising his masculinity, even if he was short enough to tuck his head in underneath Soonyoung’s chin. He had soft, silvery-white hair that reminded him of a well-groomed Persian’s, that and the native flexibility of a feline spine evident in the easy, relaxed pace he had. Pretty, so _pretty_ , without being feminine. Add to that the direct glance he had and the strong line of his chin, and suddenly he was glad that the others couldn’t smell him in here.

 

How many times in one’s life did you literally meet your wettest fantasy?

 

Soonyoung wanted to jump on him and roll on him, not just to rub his scent all over him, but to adore him, because he was tiny and cute and perfect and seemingly didn’t give any flying fucks if the fire in his eyes said anything.

 

“Lee Jihoon,” the stranger said, sticking small hands into his pockets. “Mi-sun-ssi, is this the new guy?”

 

“Yep,” Mi-sun-ssi said. “Tiger, can you believe it?”

 

Lee Jihoon smiled brilliantly. “I don’t give a fuck if he’s a sparrow as long as he can dance,” he said cheerily.

 

Soonyoung’s eyebrow twitched. “Better than you, shorty,” he said rashly.

 

“What was that?” Lee Jihoon snarled back at him.

 

Mi-sun held up her hands. “I’m out,” she announced on the spot. “You two sort this dominance display out, I’m late for Calculus anyway.”

 

They kept staring at each other right until the door closed behind her. Soonyoung couldn’t hold it any longer. He burst out laughing, throwing his head back. “Oh my god, why does that work on them every single time? Wolves, man. So touchy!”

 

Jihoon cackled, relaxing back on his heels. “They’re naturally excitable,” he explained. “One of my best friends is a wolf, and you’d swear that he’s an actual puppy the way he yaps and runs around to try and defend his fucking harem.”

 

Soonyoung choked on his spit. “His what?” he asked incredulously.

 

“Harem,” Jihoon said easily. “He’s got the hoarding instincts of a, ha, large cat. None of his fifteen thousand girlfriends seem to mind in the least. It’s one of the great mysteries of life. So, tiger, right?”

 

Soonyoung nodded. “Tiger alpha. I hope that’s not going to be a problem. I’m not a dick. You?”

 

Jihoon shrugged, small but powerful shoulders moving easily under his band t-shirt. “I’m enough of a dick for both of us,” he said jokingly. “You really think you can out-dance me? Don’t make the mistake of thinking I’m soft just because I look like this. You’re not that special.”

 

“Hardly,” Soonyoung said, falling more in love with every second. “I think I can out-dance you because it’s what I do. You wanna go, man? There’s a sound machine right over there.”

 

“If I win, I get the right to throw you at my friends so they stop cooing and asking me to act cute. It’s demeaning.”

 

 _But you are cute,_ Soonyoung wanted to say. _So, so cute._

 

“If I win,” he said thoughtfully, “I get to buy you coffee and call you cute.”

 

Lee Jihoon’s eyes flamed. “Bring it,” he growled. “Or is your mouth the only thing that can move that fast?”

 

 _I’m in love, I’m in love, I’m in love,_ Soonyoung’s heart chanted as he laughed out loud and went to pick a song.

 

He won. Of course he won. It was the closest thing ever though, taking them through five songs before Jihoon held up his hands and admitted defeat. Soonyoung was still grinning about it as they left the room. Between one step and the second, as they stepped outside into the sunlit corridor, Jihoon’s scent smacked him through the face like a two-by-four. Yes, there was sweat, yes, there was soap and cologne and lotion and whatnot, but beneath it there was the smell of grass and trees, oddly tart, but laced with the druggingly sweet smell of sunlight on flowers, rich and fertile and made thick by exertion.

 

 _Holy fuck,_ his mind stumbled. _He’s an omega, dude. A feline omega. An unclaimed feline omega. What kind of ridiculous coincidence is this?_ Inhaling a shuddering breath, he pinched his eyes shut for a moment, trying to cope with that smell in his nose. He had wanted to roll all over him earlier, pinch his cheeks and baby him and call him cute. Now he wanted to do it in bed, or in the bath, or a million other places where he could bend him over and sink into him afterwards, make him cry out his name.

 

“Problem?” Jihoon’s crisp voice came.

 

Soonyoung fought his eyes open and spotted the look on Lee Jihoon’s face, measuring and just a little cruel and apprehensive. It was a complex look, one that caught him around the heart and squeezed. It was the look of a man giving him rope to hang himself, not because he wouldn’t find back, not because he had some kind of non-consensual kink, but one that had to know how far he could press people, because he had been disappointed in the past and guarded himself fiercely from further hurt.

 

“I'm fine,” he managed, and walked on. “Sorry about that.”

 

He didn’t spot the measuring look that Jihoon gave him, nor the tiny smile on his plush lips as he finally smiled and followed after.


	2. Chapter 2

Months later, with the term well underway, Kwon Soonyoung had settled into his small apartment and his new life. Barring a few troublemakers he had to smack down, his class got along well with him; he kept them busy enough that they didn’t have much time for stupidity anyway. He slowly made friends, from the perky second-year students that Jihoon had dragged by once (one the cutest border collie that pretended to be a great deal stupider than he was, and a very loud, very russet cat that had the voice of a diva and an attitude to match), to friends of his own amongst his peers and juniors.

 

Above all he had Lee Jihoon. It had taken over a week of solid asking (begging) to get him to go out on the coffee date with him, but slowly things went easier, until it turned into a weekly thing. Neither of them cared a lot for sitting in a café, but they went with the friend groups at times, and at other times he just got it after his early morning run and took it in to Jihoon’s studio. The cat was the laziest person he knew personally (Seungkwan-ah insisted he knew someone lazier), so nine times out of then he was stretched out on the couch sleeping, allowing Soonyoung to hunker down and just _look_ at him.

 

His kitten had a vulnerability to his face in sleep that he didn’t awake, and it made Soonyoung feel so good that he trusted him enough that he didn’t even wake up as the door clicked and locked. Putting the cup on the desk, he reached to pick his head up a little, slipping in beneath so that his neck didn’t bend so uncomfortably, and started running his fingers through his flossy, pale blonde hair.

 

Jihoon muttered and wiggled a little closer, curling into a more comfortable position. There were words there, but too faint for even his ears to hear, and so he let him be. Instead, pulling the blanket along the back over him, he settled his head back to let the omega’s scent lull him into a blissful haze.

 

His mind drifted, remembering the first time they had been at a coffee shop and he had seen Jihoon’s tail. Not all cat hybrids had them, just as not all had his aggressively slanted eyes or super-flexible spine. It was a matter of biology and genetics, but it was also cute, covered with a shorter, denser version of his pale hair. That day, just as they had settled in with their coffees, about to hash out their plans for a combined performance, he had noticed Jihoon flush upright like a scalded cat, turning to give a guy in the queue the Look of Death.

 

The guy – Soonyoung could smell from half a football field away that he was an alpha – had ignored his incipient death and stroked it again, fingers burrowing in against the fur. Frowning, he stood. “Hands off,” he advised the guy flatly. “I’m not going to be responsible for what happens if you touch that one second longer.”

 

“What?” the guy had bluffed. “You don’t want me touching your little omega? Claim him properly next time, bastard. He’s open property like this. I’m not going to regret a thing.”

 

Soonyoung had smiled – well his teeth had been on display. “Yes, you are,” he said equably through them. “He’s neither property nor available, and you’ll let him go if you want to get out of this alive.”

 

“Are you threatening me?!”

 

Soonyoung sighed inwardly. _Fucking canines. At least not all of them were like that._ “No,” he drawled out. “But in about a second I am going to offer to hold his coffee and his jacket and watch him rip your head off and shit down the hole. Just because he’s an omega doesn’t mean he’s _weak_ , asshole.”

 

The guy had looked, mouth opening to bluster once more, and Jihoon had hit him with a calculated blow, enough to break his nose. It laid him out cold on the floor, and Jihoon didn’t hesitate to step on him as he stormed to the nearest phone to make a complaint, and Soonyoung? Soonyoung had applauded right along with the rest of the folks in the small café, and sipped his tea smugly.

 

No. Lee Jihoon wasn’t anyone’s kitty to tangle with, which made moments like this so much more worth it, even if it did mean that his leg was going dead and he wanted to ravish him in the worst way possible.

 

Long minutes later, just as the coffee in the travel mug felt perfect when he checked, he shook one surprisingly wide little shoulder gently. “Come on, Jihoonie,” he urged. “Sit up so that you can have your coffee, then you need to go to bed, okay? These all-nighters aren’t healthy for you.”

 

Jihoon mumbled, turning his face away and flopping over. One, two easy movements later he lay the other way, determinately using Soonyoung’s belly as a shield from the sunlight before he plucked the blanket up around his ears.

 

“Are you drooling on my leg?” Soonyoung asked. “Oh my god, Jihoonie, sit _up_. That’s not your pillow.”

 

“Shut up,” Jihoon grumbled. “It is right now.”

 

Soonyoung sighed and clicked his tongue, reaching down. It was the work of moments to wrap his arms around Jihoon enough to haul him upwards into a blanket burrito that sat on his lap, with only a dandelion-fluff of hair sticking out. “You big baby,” he accused. Reaching for the coffee, he propped it up so that the bendy straw could sneak into the cat’s hiding place. Seconds later, when he heard Jihoon start to drink, he rolled his eyes and sunk his head back against the wall, resigned to his fate as a cuddle-toy for the small and spoiled.

 

It felt like ages before he could take the cup away. Given that the burrito on his lap didn’t move, he wrapped that arm around him as well, hands slowly skimming up and down Jihoon’s back.

 

“You smell nice,” Jihoon muttered, sounding marginally more awake. Just a little bit of his face emerged, enough to bent pliantly and press his face into Soonyoung’s neck.

 

Soonyoung shuddered at the soft, not-so-innocent movements, too afraid to move lest he break the spell. Jihoon was rubbing his forehead against him, from his hairline to the tip of his cute nose, over the spot beneath his jaw where his pulse beat. Down the carotid, then up again, and finally around into his hairline a little bit. It felt tender and soft and amazingly arousing; as much as Soonyoung didn’t want him to stop, he wanted it as well, because in less than a minute he was not going to be responsible for what his dick thought of this whole situation.

 

Luckily for him, Jihoon stopped semi-scenting him. Unluckily for him, he wiggled closer, tucked his legs in under one of Soonyoung’s arms and went asleep there, with his lips a fraction away from that tender spot where blood came the closest to the surface. Every time he exhaled it was a warm wash of air; every time he inhaled slightly cooler, until Soonyoung was in some kind of thermodynamic hell made worse by the spiralling awareness that the omega just wanted cuddles, and just wanting cuddles wasn’t enough to even signify a desire for more.

 

So he sat there with Lee Jihoon on his lap, biting the inside of his lip not to pounce, and with the most awkward boner he had ever experienced. That day, when he got to escape, he practically broke the speed of sound as he ran back to his tiny apartment, barely slamming the door shut before he had his hand down his pants to frantically stroke his swelling cock. Somehow it made it worse and better at the same time that all he could smell on himself was Lee Jihoon. He came shuddering once, then twice more in quick succession, mind spinning so quickly between imagined shots of Jihoon on his knees, on his lap, on his desk that they flickered past like ghosts.

 

That night he slept the best he had in months, and wanted to die from the guilt.


	3. Chapter 3

That day marked a new awareness in him. Where he had been aware of Jihoon’s attractiveness before, it tortured him now. He didn’t know if the omega wanted him too, if he was interested in a relationship, a quick fuck, whatever. He didn’t even know whether he was interested in men.

 

All the same, he went back. Day after day, where he teased the omega and got playfully pushed away, or tortured, or scolded. Where he let him cuddle in their soft, sweet moments just after dawn if he wished, and where each night was filled with his most rampant fantasies. He was fucking whipped and struggled to hide it from everyone. Rather let everyone think he was a goofball as thick as two planks glued together.

 

The second month passed into the third, then the fourth before Jihoon’s oldest friend, the aforementioned wolf with a harem, invited him for beers one day. Tired, aching and not in the mood for any shit, he nearly refused, but in the end gave in. Choi Seungcheol was a decent sort of chap for a wolf alpha; sure, he had the massive protectiveness of that type and species, but he wasn’t overbearing with it. Clever too; the man was managing to pass a difficult business management course without any issues that Soonyoung could see.

 

“There you are,” he said as Seungcheol slid into the booth Soonyoung slouched in at the bar. The rest of it was full of salarymen out with their colleagues, offering them privacy. The booth, thanks to whoever had the bar, had white-noise generators at the edge of it, which meant they were wrapped in a soothing bubble of sound and everyone else’s chatter didn’t hurt his ears. He leant sideways to pull the still-closed bottle open, concentrated for a moment and twisted the cap off, sliding it over to the wolf.

 

Seungcheol smirked. “Showing off that tiger strength, huh?”

 

“Oh, shut up,” Soonyoung sniped. “Like you’ve got anything to complain about. Since I can smell about three girls on you, you’re either off a spectacular night or about to start one, so… what’s this about?”

 

“About to,” Seungcheol confirmed. “And what else? I’m here to talk about Woozi.”

 

Soonyoung’s ears twitched with irritation. It was some kind of nickname Jihoon used since youth for production, that was about all he knew of it. “Okay?”

 

Seungcheol eyeballed him. “To be honest,” he finally said, “I can’t tell if you’re interested in him, or you’re merely masochistic. You buy his coffee and meals, you’re patient and non-threatening and not scum, and every time he pushes you away you just come back for more. So either you’re interested in a long play, or you’ve got some kind of punishment kink.”

 

Soonyoung choked on his beer. “You think I’m masochistic because I’m nice?” he asked incredulously. “Shit, dude, it’s not like I’m hurting for money, or I would have lived in the dorms. Buying him coffee and late-night food isn’t going to hurt me.”

 

“I know,” Seungcheol continued. “And I’ve been watching you with him.”

 

“Like you’re approving who’s allowed to approach him?” Soonyoung asked as he chugged back a mouthful.

 

Seungcheol didn’t even blush. “Exactly. But I approve of you, so why won’t you make a fucking move?”

 

Soonyoung wiggled up two fingers. “One, I’ve no idea if he’s even interested because he’s about as tsun-tsun as they come. Two, I don’t know if he’s into dudes. It’s not like we’ve ever discussed it. For all I know he’s got a girlfriend somewhere and he’s just using me as a self-heating body pillow.”

 

Seungcheol brayed, he _howled_ with laughter at that one. “And you let him do it? Oh man, you’re whipped.” He put the bottle down on the table. “Trust me. Lee Jihoon is more than willing to be with men. We’ve never swung that way because we’re friends and I’m totally straight, but believe me when I tell you he’s interested. Interested enough that he’s been whining at me, thus this intervension. He’s attracted to you. Kindly get your shit together.”

 

The pit of Soonyoung’s belly burned, half-irritated and half-elated. “Really,” he got out flatly. “Okay. Thank you. I appreciate the information, hyung.” He stood. “I have an errand to run. Sorry for leaving on you.”

 

“Nah, the triplets aren’t gonna wait much longer anyway,” Seungcheol said. “Go talk to your tsun-tsun princess.”

 

Soonyoung gave him a thin smile and left, paying for the beers on their way out. He wasn’t angry and he wasn’t irritated. No. What he _was_ was in the mood for turning Jihoon over his knee and spanking his ass until it flushed rosy red. The little fucker couldn’t have told him? He was so caught in the grip of that emotion that he could smell himself and decided to forgo a taxi, choosing to walk the five kilometres back to the university instead. Going past his place he showered, changed his clothes and took the rest of the way there at an ambling walk. Nothing too fancy; his favourite ripped pair of jeans and a nice shirt, but no makeup, none of the leather that he wore when he really went all out.

 

A part of his sighed when he saw the light on in the studio, and he punched the number in that he had gotten months ago. As he suspected, Jihoon was fast asleep on the sofa, curled up in a little ball, with the screen showing a half-mixed song. He knew enough to save again, just in case, before he slipped into his normal position, pulling his kitten into his lap. That was a resolution he made on the way over. His, for as long as Jihoon would have him. It wasn’t love, not yet, but it was close.

 

His kitten came willingly and limply, more than half asleep but trusting enough that he curled on Soonyoung’s lap. Soonyoung arranged his legs how he liked it, let him nuzzle his way into his neck and sat back to pet him gently.

 

This time his hands didn’t go on his back. On, one of them held him safely, but the other rested on the bottom of one thigh, just above the kneecap, and he gently stroked his fingers back and forth as he pondered biting him there. He wanted to bite everywhere, from neck to collarbones to his gorgeous calves, if only to find out which spots made Jihoonie whimper. As he thought his fingers teased and scratched gently, sometimes stroking over warm skin, sometimes over worn denim. In his state, it didn’t take long for the omega to murmur something, waking up just enough to wiggle a little against his lap.

 

He didn’t move his hand. He wasn’t a creep that didn’t get permission before fondling someone asleep. The most he allowed himself was one fingertip sliding just a little beneath the hem of one of the tears, calloused fingertip delicate against the soft skin. Jihoon whimpered again, stirred a little bit more, until his head lolled back against his shoulders and he looked at Soonyoung beneath half-shut, trembling eyelids.

 

“Hey,” Soonyoung murmured, going back to gently petting and tickling at the soft, splendid thighs on his lap.

 

“Soonyoung? I thought you were out with …ahh… ah!” Jihoon bit his lip as Soonyoung scratched a delicate line up the inside of one soft thigh, threatening a little further than he had before. “I thought you were out with hyung tonight?”

 

“Mhm,” Soonyoung agreed. “But he had a date, so it fell through a little. I thought I’d come and see if my favourite kitten was being good and not working late, but here he is.” His hand left, pulling a whimper from Jihoon’s lips, and he curved his hand up the outside of his leg instead, moving it up to rest on his hip. “And here he is, looking like a sleepy baby, working too late, not taking care of himself again. Aish Jihoonie, what am I going to do with you?”

 

Jihoon swallowed. “I… don’t know?” he said. “What do you want to do?”

 

Soonyoung laughed softly. “What I _want_ to do is pull you over my lap and spank you like the naughty kitten you are,” he murmured, seeing a flush heat Jihoon’s ears and his mouth fall open a little. “Until your very pretty cheeks are as pink as your ears right now. And then I was thinking of spreading you open over my lap and massaging your ass redder before making you come untouched as I scent you.”

 

“H..holy fuck,” Jihoon got out. “That must have been some talk with hyung.”

 

“Oh?” Soonyoung teased. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. We didn’t talk about anything important. Besides, I respect you much too much to subject you to something like that.” He dipped his head forward to press his lips gently on Jihoon’s forehead before he lifted him up and off, depositing him on the couch and standing. “So instead I’ll just go home.”

 

He got maybe a step before Jihoon reached out to grab one of his belt loops. “Wait!” his kitten said, voice sounding strangled. “Wait, no. I… um, if you want to? I wouldn’t mind that at all. I mean…”Colouring, he let go of the belt loop.

 

“Mhm?” Soonyoung asked, moving to one of the studio chairs instead of to the sofa again. Straightening his legs, he patted his thighs. “Come on then,” he teased. “But keep your boxers on, this is for punishment, not pleasure, okay?” The hell it _was_ , but the way Jihoonie turned red made him feel like he was superhuman, and seeing him nod slowly before fumbling hands went to his belt went straight to his head. He watched as he undid the belt and his zip, pushing the jeans down just enough.

 

“Let hyung help you,” he urged, and deep in his heart swore to buy Choi Seungcheol a whole fucking case of his expensive-ass beer.


	4. Chapter 4

Soonyoung had to help him, it wasn’t easy moving with the jeans like that, but eventually they found a position that didn’t feel too awkward. Up close, even covered in dark blue boxers, Lee Jihoon’s ass was incredible, and his tail snuck around to curl around Soonyoung’s calf. The elastic wasn’t too stiff, and the material just faintly damp; the boxers yielded easily to Soonyoung’s persuasion and slid down the back, until he tucked the band under his pretty cheeks but left the rest of him covered.

 

Lee Jihoon had the kind of ass that Renaissance artists had wanted to aim for. High and tight and firmly muscular, there was just a thin layer of flesh, just enough to make the cheeks look perfect and pretty and just right to fondle. Small too, perhaps the smallest Soonyoung had ever had, but the moment’s worry about the reality of their differing sizes vanished as the rich, earthy smell of Jihoon’s slick met his nose. He ghosted his hand over the closest cheek, just enough to make him shiver, before he did it again, fingertips gently pressing into the crease.

 

“Mmmh,” Jihoon muttered blurrily, arching his back just a tad. “Mmh, that feels nic….ah!”

 

Soonyoung’s hand cracked down on his cheek, more noise than sting. “Count,” he purred, massaging the cheek gently before he slid his hand up to toy delicately with the base of Jihoon’s tail, rubbing and massaging his thumb into the base.

 

“One!” Jihoon shouted from the sudden shock of pleasure, ass lifting a bit more.

 

“Good boy,” Soonyoung praised, and spanked him again, this time on the other cheek.

 

“Two! God, you bastard, you… ah! Threeee!”

 

That last was a drawn-out mewl of a noise, partly because it had been a bit harder, and partly because Soonyoung had ghosted his thumb over Jihoon’s small, puckered hole afterwards, gently testing at the wet flesh. “Gosh, Jihoonie,” he teased as he pulled his thumb back to suckle it clean. “You taste so good… I’d eat you out but that’s not what bad kitties get.”

 

“Motherfu…. Fuck! Four!” Jihoon keened.

 

Soonyoung laughed softly and kept at it, gradually turning Jihoon’s ass the prettiest red he had ever seen. At the end of it he could fee Jihoon grind his hips down so that his hard cock could get some stimulation,  but eagerly lifted his hips again when he tapped his ass. Soonyoung’s hand was covered with slick; hell, he was sure some of the gloss on Jihoon’s ass was because he had spanked it back into his skin, but his kitten formed such a pretty picture that he couldn’t resist. His pants were drenched with it too, and Jihoon was incapable of being mouthy any longer, only uttering purring moans.

 

He stopped at twenty taps and helped his half-way delirious kitten onto his lap after pulling the boxers and jeans off his slim legs. It was easy, so _easy_ to lean forward and nibble at his neck, then collarbone, before his hands spanned his waist and he picked him up, mouth blooming open over one tiny nipple.

 

Jihoon’s voice cracked on the frantic “Soonie!” he called out, thighs falling loose and open. There wasn’t anything to move against as Soonyoung devoured his nipples through his thin shirt, seemingly content to stay there forever to tug and play with them, until they were berry-hard and full. His abs and groin were a mess of pre-cum and transferred slick turning cold against his skin, until he had to throw back his head and hang like that, willing to let Soonyoung pose him however he wanted.

 

“That’s better,” Soonyoung whispered against his neck as he let him sink down. He kept the t-shirt on him, but his hands moved down and under to cup Jihoon’s ass, fingertips biting into the reddened flesh before he began massaging them. He was tender and thorough; no matter how he had teased his kitten this wasn’t really a punishment. So, softly but firmly, he settled him into the rhythm of grinding against the air, fingertips spreading his cheeks apart to play with the puckered entrance there. “So wet for me, Hoonie. So very, very wet, I bet I’d sink in smooth as silk.”

 

“I want your fingers!” Jihoon snarled in a rush, too aware that his ass was still in prime spanking position to speak slowly. “God damn you, put your fingers in me!”

 

Soonyoung tsked. “So demanding,” he groused happily. Still, holding his kitten still, he began to play and tease at that slick-soaked entrance, carefully working him open. It was the hottest thing he had ever felt or heard, with sucking, slick noises sounding every time he dipped his middle finger in just slightly. “Hold still, baby. When last did you have sex? You feel so goddamned tight, it couldn’t have been in the last few months.”

 

“Year!” Jihoon gasped as he held still for the finger that sunk into him too slowly for his tastes. “Over a year ago.”

 

Soonyoung bit the inside of his cheek. It was way longer than he had thought. “Okay,” he said a moment later, voice gentle. He worked his middle finger in slowly, rocking it in and out until it was coated, until Jihoon’s hips danced on it like a pinned butterfly, before he added a second. His kitten was slick and hot and wet, but there was no way he’d be able to take him tonight. “Hoonie, listen to me. No, hold on. Sit still and listen.”

 

It cost a great deal of concentration for Jihoon to slow down, he could see that in the puff-puff-puff of his panting breath and the flick-flick of his tail. “W..what?”

 

“We can’t have sex tonight. Not that I don’t want to, but you’re small enough it’s going to be problematic if we don’t prepare first.”

 

“The fuck?” Jihoon said, grinding his hips down lushly on Soonyoung’s buried fingers. “I sure as hell can take whatever you can give.”

 

Arching his eyebrow, Soonyoung pulled his hand away and made a show of suckling them clean before he reached down to untie his jeans. With a little fiddle later, his cock burst free from where it had been torturing him, slapping softly against his abdomen. He looked at it, the weight and length and girth of it, before he lifted his gaze to eyebrow Jihoon.

 

“…well fuck,” his kitten muttered. “It’s not enough that you dance like a fucking hurricane, now you’re hung like that too?”

 

Soonyoung felt his heart squeeze as he pouted, he goddamn _pouted_. It prompted him to pick his wonderful lover up, carrying them back to the couch before he sat down, arranged him on his knees and spread his cheeks wide open, thumbs holding his hole slightly spread for his tongue. Driving it in, he set about making Lee Jihoon forget about his existence.

 

It worked; Jihoon squealed as if he had been stung and lifted his ass immediately, free tail flailing in the air. “Oh fuck, oh fuck, _yes_ ,” he shrieked, uncaring about his partner’s sensitive ears. Curving his back, he pressed his face into the sofa and cried, whining with the sheer pleasure of Kwon Soonyoung eating him out. It wasn’t delicate any longer, it was fierce and insistent and god he knew what he was doing, making his body sing. He felt loose and free and loved and delirious with need.

 

Soonyoung reached beneath to wrap his hand tightly around Jihoon’s leaking cock as he tongue-fucked his slick back into him, swallowing it down with a singing heart. His fingers formed a loose shackle, then bit in hard enough to stop any thought of climaxing. Holding his kitten there, suspended between his tongue and hands, he did what he’d been wanting to do forever, eating him out straight through two painfully exquisite orgasms. His lover scratched and bit at the fabric of the nearest pillow, face as wet with tears as his own face was with Jihoonie’s slick.

 

Finally, when he could feel the little body beneath him tremble towards a third orgasm, he propped him on his feet and lashed arms around to hold him steadily. “Lesson one,” he murmured, mouth ghosting over the thick, hard cock. “This is mine.” His head dipped down for a suckle; Jihoonie was being loud enough that his ears hurt, so he worked his fingers into his ass again. “And this is mine. Understand?”

 

“Yessssss!” Jihoon hissed. He would have agreed to anything if only Soonyoung would keep sucking at his cock like that. “Yes! Yours, I promise!”

 

Soonyoung pumped his fingers in once, hard, slowly removing his mouth. “Whose?” he asked raspily, purring it into the hot, slick cock next to his mouth.

 

“Yours! Kwon Soonyoung’s! I’m Kwon Soonyoung’s!” Jihoon shouted, hips pumping frantically. One stroke, then two, another smack on his red butt, and he was coming down Soonyoung’s throat, pumping and pumping, releasing a year’s pent-up frustrating. He flooded his mouth, shuddered, curled over him in the end, until all he could do was spasm weakly and fall down.

 

“Shhh,” Soonyoung muttered, swallowing as he caught his Jihoonie. “Shhhh, baby, it’s alright.”

 

Crying, boneless, utterly wrecked, Jihoon sank into the haven of his arms. The last thing he felt before he passed out was his Soonyoungie scenting him slowly, but thoroughly, wrapping his limp, satisfied body into his arms. He went gladly into the darkness, feeling safe for the first time in a long while.


	5. Chapter 5

“…cause you can touch, touch me…” the music beat through the large studio. Soonyoung, up on a ladder, watched his dancers carefully as they moved through the choreography. It was part of the mid-year showcase, thus the need to do it where a stage could be mapped out with tape. It was going well though, everyone seemed to have the steps under control and the younger ones didn’t blush at the suggestive choreography anymore, just rolled their bodies like they were professionals… which was the point of the showcase in the first place.

 

The Performing Arts department was going all-out with the showcase too. Between his Jihoonie and the other composers, they had a three-hour block filled with music, both vocal and rap, and his own department had been told to hop it with the choreography.

 

He had to fight a smile as he thought of his Jihoonie. It had been a week since that night when everything finally clicked, and it was the nicest he had ever had. They hadn’t had another opportunity for fooling around, both being too busy, but there was still the odd hug, the morning coffee dates, enough that he had a lingering trace of Jihoonie’s scent on him. It was enough.

 

Well no, not enough, but it was the best they’d get until they got a breather.

 

“Hyung!” Channie called from the door, waving a large paper in the air as he stormed in. “The costumes got… oh, sorry, hyung.”

 

He paused the music with the remote. “Ten minutes break guys, it’s looking really well. Remember your water.” Instead of climbing down he just jumped, ending next to his favourite dongsaeng. The kid was in his first-year group, could dance like there were ants in his pants, and had a healthy fascination with Michael Jackson. Not only that, the kid could rap pretty well. “It’s okay,” he soothed; the kid was barely nineteen, fresh out of his secondary change into a lovely young alpha, and had to deal with everyone babying him despite that. “You checked all of it against the list that the stylists gave us, right?”

 

Chan straightened proudly. “Yes, hyung, and I double-checked with Jun-hyung’s team as well. I’ve also got our separate performance outfit for ‘Thirteenth’s Month’s Dance’, but the stylist noona refused to give me your ‘Touch’ outfit because she said it was sinful or something. I am _literally a man already_ and she wouldn’t give it to me. She said you had to go and get it yourself. Oh, and I picked up Jihoon-hyung’s ‘With You’ outfit as well, it’s in a separate bag.”

 

“Thanks, Channie,” Soonyoung said as he looked at the paper, fighting the impulse to pat him on the head. The kid was a wolf as well, but so far he was an absolute honey, with none of the more obnoxious traits. He was also part of Seungcheol’s pack, which was all the better as far as he was concerned. It would keep the kid safe until he grew into his frame. “I’ll take it to him.”

 

“Seungkwan-hyung is still bitching that he’s not in a dancing song as well,” Chan tattled on heartlessly. “You should have heard him in music theory earlier, hyung. We rappers have it with them, you know? Anyway, some utter tool told him he was too fat to dance, and I wanted to punch him, but Vernon-hyung stepped in and dealt with it. But I wanted to! If Jihoon-hyung had been there he would have. Oh… and a box came for you? It wasn’t marked or anything except with your name, so I didn’t want to open it, but it was pretty heavy. Looked like an internet order.”

 

Soonyoung nearly blushed. “No, that’s good, Channie, thank you. I’ll go get it just now. Who’s this Vernon though? Is he a good guy? He must be, if he’s standing up for someone like that.”

 

Chan whistled between his teeth. “He’s cool. He’s some kind of mix, I’m not sure what, and he’s very quiet, but he’s deep too, right? Good lyrics. And he’s not the tallest I’ve seen, not like the rest of his rap group, but he’s got presence. He stood and told the guy that if he wasn’t intelligent, because clearly he wasn’t if he thought Seungkwan-hyung was fat and couldn’t dance, that he should shut up so that we didn’t have to listen to him because he didn’t want to catch that kind of stupidity.”

 

“Wow,” Soonyoung said, impressed. “That’s pretty nice.”

 

“Yeah, Seungkwan-hyung was looking at him like he was the second coming of Christ or something.”

 

Soonyoung ticked off the last item. All of it was done. He didn’t regret recruiting Chan as his undergrad gofer. The kid was energetic enough for ten, asked when he didn’t understand anything, and had what had to be the world’s most open mind. Even Seungcheol’s fifteen thousand girlfriends didn’t faze him one bit; in fact, he teased him so badly about them Seungcheol wanted to squash him like a bug at times. “And what did our diva do after that? Or was he shocked to silence for once?”

 

Chan’s smile brightened. “He was so quiet! But he was blushing almost as red as his hair, and he kept on sneaking glances at Hansol-hyung for the rest of the day, and he even slipped him his number. I wish someone stands up for me like that someday.”

 

Soonyoung laughed. “Listen, I’m going to go and deliver that outfit and get my package, okay? You know this routine, just run everyone through it once or twice more and then call it a day.”

 

Chan beamed and mock-saluted him, running to clamber up the ladder.

 

Soonyoung shook his head and went to shower, swinging by to get Jihoonie’s outfit and the package from his office. Ambling over to the Music building, he found his boyfriend in his studio (no wonder his skin was so pale) and sighed as he entered. “Afternoon, Jihoonie…”

 

That was as far as he got. Between one step and the next Jihoon slammed to his feet, somehow got him into a half-Nelson and dragged him to his chair. Soonyoung had to let the package fall and barely got to drape the outfit over the sofa before his boyfriend cued a song.

 

“It’s done!” Jihoon called excitedly. “That song I was telling you about, the ballad? It’s done and I submitted it, and oh my god they want it! Listen, Soonie, listen!”

 

Soonyoung clicked his tongue and reached out to drag his kitten up onto his lap as Jihoon cued up the song, then spent the next three minutes with his chin hooked over his shoulder as he listened to the honey-smooth, sweet voice. Lee Jihoon might have no problems with decking people, might be one of the scariest omegas he knew, but he had the best voice _ever_. This song titled ‘Simple’ really showcased it, and it made him think of all the dreams he once had about falling in love and being in a storybook romance. Not in a sugar-sick way, but half-melancholic.

 

_I have it now, even though he doesn’t know yet._

 

“It’s lovely,” he said when it finished. “But it’s also kind of sad and melancholy almost? I don’t think anyone’s going to sing this as well as you can.”

 

Jihoon sounded like the cat that got the cream when he cackled. “It was just a demo of my work so they can’t take it, I’m not going to sell it. But they liked it enough that they asked for more samples of my portfolio, and that I come and audition for them.”

 

“Nooo,” Soonyoung teased, kissing his neck. “They don’t deserve my kitten.” He paused. “Your package is here. The one you ordered on my laptop.”

 

“Idiot,” Jihoon shivered, and clambered off, returning with the package. Moving his keyboard away, he leant to the side to casually retrieve a knife from a drawer. The package only last five seconds more before he had it sliced open cleanly, and delved inside, pulling out the contents. Lubricant samples, dildos, a series of sized plugs, all of it a compromise because Jihoon wanted sex and Soonyoung didn’t want to hurt him. At the bottom of the package, carefully wrapped, some lingerie, and he knew his tiger approved of the lace when he felt him harden just a little. Okay, a lot.

 

“Do you want me to help you put one in later on?” Soonyoung asked softly. “Or we can try some of the other stuff? I got your outfit for your piece as well, Channie picked it up.”

 

Jihoon snorted. “The sooner the better,” he said, wriggling free to stand and pile everything back into the box. “You’re done for the day, right? Come on, we can go back to your place so I can wash up and we can finally start working on this. My dick’s gonna fall off if we don’t get working on this.”

 

“Your dick?” Soonyoung teased. “What about mine?”

 

“Your dick would live through the fucking apocalypse, you mutant!” Jihoon called over his shoulder as he stormed out eagerly. “Come on!”

 

Chortling, Soonyoung stayed behind for a moment to get Jihoon’s outfit and his bag, then scooted after his demanding omega.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. OMG, the outpouring of support I've had for this made my tiny heart crumble, both here and on twitter. You guys are amazing. Here, have another chapter. 
>   2. A few more people start to appear, and I've tried to match them (sort of) with their animal breeds below. 
>   3. Pack Leader [Seungcheol](https://howlingforjustice.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/wolf_snow.jpg)
>   4. Chinese Boy Jun - no decisions yet? 
>   5. Whipped Alpha [Soonyoung](https://orig00.deviantart.net/dc39/f/2007/042/2/5/maltese_tiger_by_dark_moonlight69.jpg)
>   6. Ferocious Omega [Jihoon](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CDhsHD8WAAAG00A.jpg)
>   7. Excited Puppy [Seokmin](http://cuonet.com/data/file/job/thumb-243979303_FzKvY19b_67e58cf63f1979c0f82358f0223b1fba92dc20fe_700x438.jpg). 
>   8. Diva Cat [Seungkwan](https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/warriorcatclansrp/images/b/b2/Red_cat.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20150612164913)
>   9. Hansol - Undecided 
>   10. (Not a)Baby Wolf [Chan](http://www.cutestpaw.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Young-wolf.jpg).
> 



	6. Chapter 6

“My kids tell me that you helped them with a dance to a song I wrote,” Jihoon murmured from where he lay on his belly on Soonyoung’s bed, face down and braced on his arms as Soonyoung massaged his lower back slowly with a warming oil. “Seungkwan-ah and Seokmin-ah.”

 

“Mmm,” Soonyoung confirmed with a purr, distracted by the silky feel of the skin underneath his hands. He dug his thumbs slowly into the long muscles near his thin waist, smoothing out the tension in them, before moving down a little to try and coax his kitten’s small body into adapting. They had been busy with this all week; as much as he tried to slow him down, Jihoonie had a devil-may-care attitude towards his own body, and would have worn the stupid plugs twenty-four seven if he thought it could get him adapted faster.

 

His body, on the other hand, naturally complained at being rushed like that. When Soonyoung had seen him slouched over at lunchtime, one hand discreetly trying to rub stiffness out of his back, he had finally put his foot down and had abducted him for a massage.

 

Even now, with the second-biggest one securely inside him, he was still wiggling and grinding as much against the blankets as he could, until Soonyoung rolled his eyes and smacked him gently on the butt. “Lie still, Jihoonie,” he said gently. “This is supposed to be relaxing, not rile you up even more.”

 

“You’re literally rubbing oil into my butt,” Jihoon muttered into his arms as he slowly stilled, tail flicking with irritation before it too rested gently to the side. “I’d like to see you lying still when I rub oil into your butt.”

 

“Does that mean you’re going to rub oil into my butt?” Soonyoung asked, amused, as he tried to work a muscle knot free.

 

“Nooooo,” Jihoon moaned as it eased. “I hate you, why would I touch your butt even? Idiot.”

 

Soonyoung snerked with amusement, shaking his head as he scooted down. Tilting his head, he eased his kitten’s cheeks apart to check on the fit of the plug, one thumb testing very gently at the stretched rim. It was wet with slick and lubricant, enough to make him lean down for a little lick, though he wanted to scrub his tongue clean afterwards. Jihoonie tasted great. The plug tasted like petroleum by-product, which wasn’t his favourite taste ever. At least the lube was largely inoffensive, bland rather than the scented, taste-altered stuff they sold to hybrids that didn’t have increased senses.

 

Jihoon moaned softly at the lick, a trembling purr of a sound, and stayed where he was for once. “I… I have a favour to ask,” he got out, trembling.

 

Soonyoung reached beside him for the largest plug and slowly started to work the other out, pushing and pulling gently to test Jihoonie’s give. As much as he wanted to complain, it came out easily and he flicked it aside for later cleaning before dipping his head down to deal with the slick that poured out freely. His kitten was wet, so very wet, and his smell! Gods, the way he smelled made Soonyoung’s head spin. Slowly, deliberately, he started licking him clean from thigh to crack. “What is it?” he asked against the slightly fleshy curve of one cheek, nibbling a little line of bites and kisses up over it.

 

“Nnnnn…” Jihoon got out, trying hard not to wriggle or squirm, or to lift his hips to plead wordlessly. Over the past few weeks he had learnt that Soonyoung was the cuddliest, most permissive alpha he had known, but when it came to this, where he was _caring_ and not trying to seduce, he could be a tyrant. “Changwoo-ah managed to get strep throat somehow, or mono, or _something_ , I don’t know. Soonie… ah! Bast… hey! No spanking, not unless you’re prepared to whip it out right now!”

 

Soonyoung laughed as sat back to reach for a wet washcloth. “Then don’t call me a bastard when you’re trying to ask me something,” he muttered, setting to slowly and diligently cleaning his kitten.

 

Jihoon thought a very sulky, very nasty word. “They’re really depressed, especially Seungkwan-ah. All the other vocalists are already booked and busy, and I told them I’d look around.” He bit his lip. “I was wondering if perhaps you… if perhaps you could sing with them? You know the dance and the song already, and you do have a good voice.”

 

Soonyoung paused at that, sitting up. It didn’t really require much thought. He loved silly dances like that, and his voice wasn’t going to be the focus of the show anyway. “Of course,” he murmured, leaning forward to press a kiss into the two dimples on Jihoonie’s back. “If it’s allowed, I wouldn’t mind.” He scooted off his kitten entirely and reached out to pick him up in his arms to carry him to the bathroom. The water in the tiny tub was still steaming when he checked, and he would have left him there if a hand didn’t come to hold him close.

 

“Stay,” Jihoon ordered, plucking at his arm. “We can clean up later.”

 

Soonyoung rolled his eyes but acquiesced, stripping his clothes slowly and pretending he didn’t know Jihoon was staring. It was awkward fitting the both of them into the tub, but he finally managed, resting back with his kitten on his lap. His _wriggly_ kitten, who was apparently trying to start something, if the way he wiggled over his slowly-swelling cock said anything. “Sit still,” he complained.

 

“Shut up,” Jihoonie told him briskly. “I know what I’m doing.” Very slowly, eyes drooping half-closed, he worked the large length beneath him hard, until it jutted between his legs and kissed along the underside of his own. Split open like that, with his ass on his alpha’s stomach and his legs draped outside of his, he rested back, tucked his head under Soonyoung’s chin and gave a slow, happy sigh. He’d never admit that he loved soft, sensual moments like this, not when his alpha teased him so gently about them. “I’ll send you the performance times. I checked, they don’t overlap with yours.”

 

Soonyoung, trapped in a hazy daydream, sighed gustily from sheer pleasure. “That’s alright then, Jihoonie. It’s not a problem at all.” A dim memory tickled at him. “Look… I know it’s early days yet, and we’re very new to each other, but we seem pretty compatible. And this isn’t payback or anything, god, please don’t think that. And I’m not trying to be overprotective…”

 

Jihoon reached to pinch his knee. “Stop rambling, my god. Just say what you’re thinking of.”

 

Soonyoung cleared his throat. “Do you want to move in with me?” he asked softly. “We’ve known each other for a few months, and this place is bigger, and you’ve abducted half of my closet already. Besides, this place has a tub even if it’s this tiny, and it comes with a devoted servant that’ll tend to your every need…”

 

“No,” Jihoon interrupted, teasing awkwardly as he considered the notion of moving in, of making this space theirs as opposed to Soonyoung-with-a-trace-of-Jihoon. “Because the devoted servant is being a dick about refusing me sex.” Seconds later, as he felt the body beneath him still, his pinch turned into a slow, lazy fondle of Soonyoung’s kneecap. It cost them a little water, but he managed to turn around and straddle him so that he could look at his alpha’s tip-tilted tiger eyes. “Are you sure?” he muttered. “I’m lazy and I have bad habits, and people always tell me I’m cold.”

 

Soonyoung, fighting off the heart attack caused by that ‘no’, sat up so that Jihoon’s legs could lock around his waist, leaning forward to slowly start scenting his omega. Like this, languorous and worried, he could smell fir needles above the slow trickle of maple syrup, infinitely sweet. His Jihoonie was a seasonal landscape, never _feminine_ , but always so wonderfully varied. “That first day when we met?” he murmured into the crook of his kitten’s neck. “I was ready to ask you to mate with me then, never mind sharing my apartment. Fuck whatever anyone else thinks, this is just us.”

 

Jihoon let out a muffled sound as old hurts pinged away, the ice around his heart cracking more. “Not going to ask anymore? Have I put you off the idea?”

 

“Nope, not right away,” Soonyoung murmured. “Not until we’re done with the festival and done with your preparations.” His hands creeped from Jihoon’s sides down to his butt, slowly fondling over his tail before sinking down to press against his pucker. “Not until I’m deep, deep inside you, as deep as you’ll let me in.” He gently slipped his index finger inside, then his middle, scissoring and stretching his kitten. It cost barely a moment of concentration to search and find his prostate so that he could gently stroke at it, massaging and pressing.

 

His kitten’s tail thrashed with the assault, lithe body leaning back, until he could see the tip of his pretty pink cock stick out of the water. “Soonie!” his kitten groaned. “Ahh… god da… ah! No, put them back!”

 

Soonyoung held him still in his arms, pulling him forward to rest half-over his shoulder. “It’s so cute when you curse with that pretty mouth of yours, baby. Are you going to try cursing me out when I’m stretching your mouth too? Going to look at me with those spitfire eyes as you swallow me down?”

 

“Fucking yes!” Jihoon shouted next to his ear, making him wince. “Fuck you, put them back in me, or I’m going to break your cock off and fuck myself!”

 

“Mouthy, pretty baby,” Soonyoung laughed, reaching to nibble on the curve of his kitten’s neck. He had been careful not to leave marks so far, but this time… plunging his fingers back inside the trembling form on his lap, he finger-fucked his kitten fast and deep, slipping a third in just to make him squeal as he attached his lips to his neck, sucking and biting and kissing right over the pulse-point.

 

Jihoon writhed and cried out and rode his fingers desperately, splashing water everywhere. His mouth drooped open to babble as he raked his nails over Soonyoung’s shoulders, and let his head fall limply to the side. It was so close, so _close_ to where he wanted his alpha to bite him, but he didn’t press it. Instead, seeing stars behind his eyes, he arched his back and slammed down one last time, coming with high, whining purrs of relief.

 

He floated on nothingness, mind blown with endorphins, allowing his alpha to pet and ease him down, to be the kind of gentle with him that he hadn’t felt he deserved in a long time.

 

“Baby?” Soonyoung murmured into that hallowed moment. “Jihoonie…hey, come back to me.”

 

“Yes,” Jihoon muttered on a broken whisper. “Yes, I’ll move in with you.” It took effort to swallow and sit up, and as he brushed against Soonyoung’s huge, straining cock he felt a bit guilty. “Ah… I can…”

 

Soonyoung shook his head. “It’s okay,” he murmured into the hickey that bloomed rose and purple against the delicate pale skin. “Don’t worry about me.” His hands trailed away from Jihoon’s butt, petting and playing with him before pulling him into a tight hug. “You already made my day.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. I wanted to show just a little bit of the process in between agreeing to have sex and actually having it. 
>   2. Next chapter, the festival and their first time! It miiight spread over two chapters, I dunno. 
> 



	7. Chapter 7

Soonyoung stood with his back braced against the wall, keeping an eye out over his group of kids. They were warming up for the performances they would do, each about as nervous as a puppy at the thought of their first showpiece as real, adult dancers. For a second he was glad that the huge stadium rented had the same HVAC systems as their practice studio at the university, because alpha was sitting next to beta and omega, and all they were doing was giggling and laughing. He had seen it so many times in smaller places, with people less disciplined – exertion released adrenaline and hormones, and fights start breaking out, people start getting hurt.

 

These days companies and venues were at last starting to get it right, and it made his heart happy.

 

“Hyung!” he heard, shattering over the madness of the fitting room, and looked around to see the two loudest people of his acquaintance storm him.

 

They met him with a flurry of hugs and pats on the back and noise-noise-noise, already dressed in the cute suits they would be dancing in later as part of a first-year number choreographed by Wen Junhui, but they were beaming. Behind them, trailing like he didn’t know where to go, came another kid about as tall as Seokmin-ah but with honey-blonde hair and a mixed-race face. So quiet he almost didn’t hear him moving, but the eyes that met his were steady and straight.

 

 _Alpha,_ Soonyoung realised in his bones as he accepted the hugs, then pushed them a discreet distance away.

 

“Hyung,” Seokmin said happily. “Are you ready? You’re not even in your suit, we’re on in an hour!”

 

“I know,” he soothed the excited collie. “I’ll be ready in time. Remember you two have a performance before we do our thing. Who’s your friend?”

 

He had the distinct pleasure of seeing Seungkwan colour almost the colour of his russet hair. The first year reached to make space for the stranger, hands gentle on his shoulders. “This is Chwe Hansol,” he stated in a syrupy voice that sounded almost like the feeling in his heart when he thought of his Jihoonie. “He’s an, um, friend, they’re performing as well as part of Seungcheol-hyung’s rap group.”

 

Hansol dipped his head. “Pleasure meeting you.”

 

Deep voice, stare still straight. Soonyoung approved… provisionally, because over the past few months he had gotten as fond of Jihoonie’s kids as his own. “I look forward to it, and.. ah, excuse me?” He had spotted brilliant white-blonde out of the corner above smoky grey.

 

“Hyung’s lost on Jihoon-hyung,” Seungkwan giggled behind his back as he made his way to Jihoon. He didn’t mind. The small singer/songwriter/dancer had become his life, even when he stole the blankets or didn’t take care of himself, or up until the wee hours of the morning composing. Soonyoung had had to draw the line a time or two in the past week of living together, but they were rubbing together comfortably and tonight… tonight his Jihoonie looked fine as fuck in that black shirt and tight pants, not to mention the thin silken sash wrapped around his neck several times.

 

“Hey,” he murmured, knowing his omega well enough not to push for more than a fleeting touch to the hand. “You look good, Jihoonie. How’s your throat? Are you ready?”

 

Jihoon gave him one of those lap-cat stares down his nose, world-weary loathing and indifference perfectly encapsulated in it. “Did you _have_ to bite me? I wasn’t even going to put this choker on in the first place. But don’t worry, I left you a little present as well.” It was cheerfully malicious, totally uncaring, with the side-eyed fire that he had fallen in love with from the first time he saw him.

 

It made him just a little weak, and he met his kitten’s eyes in the mirror. “Yes,” he said quietly. “Yes, I had to. Because you’re my reason for smiling.”

 

Jihoon pushed him away with a great deal of grumbling about his cheesy ass, and he laughed his way towards the changing room.

 

One performance followed on the other; the university had a particularly strong group this year, and the stadium’s professional lighting and sound made the best of the large space. The stage was built out into the middle of it like a makeshift auditorium, so that the performers could be seen from all sides. For those breeds that didn’t have enhanced vision, a circle of large screens hovered above the stage, brilliantly replicating the main camera angle. The first years sang ‘Mansae’, the second ‘Rock’, and the third-years a reworked version of ‘Highlight’. Song mixed with dance and rap; Jihoon’s solo ‘With You’ showcased his talents so well that Soonyoung nearly ran out on the stage to spin him around, and it was only when he frantically stripped from ‘Just Do It’ with the diva twins that he saw what his omega had meant.

 

His Touch outfit slipped on like they should, but someone had modified the harness that he wore over it with a little charm with Jihoon’s name on that dangled from the leather choker, as well as a huge ‘Jihoon’s’ on the inside of that choker, so that the name would sit against his throat. It touched him, and it made him horny, and they still had hours to go. Pulling everything on, glancing at himself in the mirror one last time, he scooted onto the stage. If his omega wanted a reminder, he’d dance until the marker sublimated straight onto his skin.

 

======================================

 

They trekked into their apartment at three the morning, both tired to the bone, and Soonyoung practically fell asleep in the shower as he scrubbed his kitten’s back. From the limp way that Jihoon hung off him, he was most of the way asleep, so he wrapped him in a warm towel, tucked one of his old stretched-out t-shirts over his head and carried him to bed. He returned from making sure the apartment was locked to find him sprawled out and sleeping already, and shook his head, touched. Fighting back sleep himself, he set to massaging his calves and thighs slowly, working a herbal liniment in that’d keep him from cramping before pulling on a pair of socks.

 

Taking care of himself took only a minute, and he was free to curl in beside Jihoon, pull the blanket over them and go to sleep cuddled together with him. It was deep and dreamless, and his heart spun with happiness.

 

Morning dawned slowly five hours later, when he woke to the smell of coffee and a squirming body next to him. He managed to prop an eye open a crack, saw Jihoon make his way into bed again, and curled around him with a grumble. He loved the feeling of hands in his hair, the slow glide of fingers down his side, but his eyes slammed open and he reached down a hand as said small hand tried to wrap around his cock. “Don’t,” he muttered, and moved to sit up.

 

Jihoon’s brows creased. “You’ve barely let me touch you for a _week_ ,” he griped. “I can’t be the only one screaming my lungs out. I’ve never even met a guy turning down a blowjob, what’s up with that?”

 

 _That_ had been painful, the thought of Jihoonie’s mouth anywhere near his cock and having to say no. “It’s got nothing to do with that, Jihoonie,” he soothed his irritated boyfriend. “it’s just stupid, okay?” He reached to pull him closer, wrapping arms around him in a back-hung and stealing a sip of coffee. “It’s about making sure that you’re drenched in my scent, nice and full. Making sure that I can go as many rounds as you want this first time. We’re never going to have our first time again, I want to make it all I’ve been dreaming of.”

 

Jihoon’s cheeks heated spectacularly. “Oh my god, that’s such an alpha thing to say. I guess you didn’t escape all their stupid.”

 

“Mhm,” Soonyoung murmured lazily. “But Jihoonie, if it’s simply an alpha thing, why are you squirming like you’re getting hot?”

 

Jihoon’s blush intensified and he slapped at Soonyoung’s closest thigh. “Shut up, oh my god.”

 

Soonyoung buried a grin in his kitten’s neck, lips nipping and playing over the place he’d mark him later, right on his nape, where the hairs were fine and delicate and unable to shield his white skin. “We won’t always be able to do it; you’re a fertile omega, baby, and we’ve not discussed kids, so soon enough it’ll be condoms for us. But this first time I want to fill you up so much that your tiny body has to fight to keep all my cum in. Forgive me my stupid alpha tendencies, okay?”

 

“I’ll think about it,” Jihoon pouted. “But it had better be today sometime, or I really am going to break your cock off and turn it into a dildo.”

 

Laughing, Soonyoung let Jihoon’s tail curl around his wrist as he wrapped him in a tight embrace. “I promise,” he murmured. “Promise, promise, promise. After dinner. I booked a nice place for us.”

 

==========================================

 

Jihoon had no mercy that day. He dressed in a sleeveless shirt and shorts which, yes, was perfect for the summer heat but was also perfect for messing with Soonyoung’s brain. They had picnicked next to the Han River, had gone to play volleyball, had gone to watch a movie before they had a nice dinner. That had been the second blow, seeing Jihoon dress up in a nice suit. The third blow had come in the Uber home, because when his kitten wanted something he wanted it, and apparently it didn’t matter who saw.

 

At the end of his patience, he tossed money at the driver, hauled Jihoon up over his shoulder and smacked his butt as he trotted up the stairs. The hallway rang with Jihoon’s laughter at that, and Mrs. Lee on the second floor gave them an old, practiced eye-roll as they went past. Soonyoung slammed into their apartment, barely kept hold of his shoulderful of squirming kitten, and moved to the bedroom before he tossed him down hard enough to bounce.

 

Jihoon had the temerity to laugh like a loon, clapping his hands together as his head bounced on the pillows. “Oh my god, if only you could see your face! It’s the best thing ever, I need to take a photo… hang on…” He bent sideways, trying to dig his phone out of his pocket.

 

“Jihoonie,” Soonyoung purred, shrugging his jacket off. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Slowly, idly he folded it over a chair, then did the same with his shirt.

 

“Huh, why?” Jihoon looked over. “What… oh.” His words petered out as his mouth fell open. His alpha’s body was magnificent, even in the low light of their bedroom, and the way he simply stripped everything off to stand naked stripped his ability to breath. Lean and muscled, with strong legs and arms, he was perfection right down to the stomach he hated, to say nothing of his cock. It stood rigidly to attention against that same stomach, hot and huge and already just a little shiny from precum.

 

Soonyoung stalked idly closer, reaching out to catch his speechless kitten’s ankle. He drew him closer, eased his dress shoe and sock off, then did the same for the other. “Do you want to take a picture?” he teased as he worked on Jihoon’s belt buckle and zip, slowly scooting down pants and underwear at the same time before he looked down. Jihoonie in a dress shirt and nothing else was _magical_ , from the way it draped across wide shoulders and pooled over his thighs, revealing only a hint of his erection. “Gosh, Jihoonie, you’re so pretty. I want to take pictures myself, just like this, put you in my wallet.”

 

“Sh…shut up,” Jihoon stuttered, scooting away a little to pull his shirt off his shoulders. “You’re such a dirty-talking perv.”

 

Soonyoung settled on the bed as well, crawling over his lover. “Only with you, kitten,” he murmured as he tucked a kiss into his neck, on one collarbone, one pale pink nipple, and finally his palm. “Seeing you like this, pale and perfect and smelling so wonderful, how could I not talk dirty? I want to kiss praise into your skin until you’re a galaxy, a shining, savage, loving, wonderful galaxy. I love you, Jihoonie. I have for weeks now, if not months.”

 

Jihoon made him stop, reached down to kiss him gently, palm along his cheek and tears wet on his lips. “You goddamn perfect person,” he choked out. “Stop making me cry like this.”

 

“Never,” Soonyoung whispered. “Never, ever, ever.”

 

He slipped his arms around his kitten’s waist, pulled him up so that their bodies twined together and he sat on his lap. His fingertips traced patterns into Jihoonie’s spine as he felt his small body shudder with tears. It had been difficult for him, and from what Seungcheol-hyung said he had had a difficult time growing up, but if there was one person that deserved to be loved it was Lee Jihoon. It wasn’t until he stilled that Soonyoung’s fingers gently slipped down over his tail and butt, patting both just a little teasingly to get the scent of acrid eucalyptus and sadness to pass.

 

Seconds later, frowning, he stopped. There was something there… his fingertips found something in the crease between his pretty cheeks and tried to map it out. It wasn’t one of the plugs he had bought for him, he knew those by touch. This one, this one felt warm and had facets and he blinked. “Kitten…?” he murmured. “What are you wearing?”

 

Sniffling, Jihoon pulled away from his lap. “You did so much for us and I couldn’t think of anything so… well.” Scrambling around, he slowly came to his knees, then sank his torso down on the bed, pushing his pert little butt into the air. There, surrounded by gleaming flesh stretched wide, was a plug as big as the other one, but a lot more decorative, made from cool silvery titanium with a gem studding the end. Around it, engraved in the metal, was Soonyoung’s name. It could have looked tacky, but it didn’t, it looked perfect.

 

“Holy fuck,” Soonyoung managed to get out, touching it gently with shaking fingers. It meant so much to him, that sight, the wordless assurance that Jihoon would give him something like that, that as much as he joked about them he still catered to his instincts and likely had for weeks. This kind of piece was custom-made, not off the rack.

 

His kitten murmured something as he touched it, flexible back curving a little more as his tail danced. “I’ve been wearing it for dinner,” he muttered into one of their pillows. “I… yeah. Because sometimes you deserve a good kitten, right?”

 

Soonyoung wanted to laugh, he wanted to howl, but that would have shattered the moment and Jihoon’s courage, so he merely smiled and leant down to shower kisses all over his backside. For a moment he played a little with the plug, until he eased it out slowly and set it aside, eyes focused intently on the way slick gushed and drooled from Jihoon’s stretched pucker, coating lines down his thighs, down his balls and cock, covering him in Soonyoung’s favourite scent.

 

“Don’t look,” Jihoon moaned, muscles trembling in his thighs. “Don’t look, oh my god, this is so embarrassing. I’m never doing this again!”

 

“Hush,” Soonyoung murmured. “Hush, baby, this is perfect. Watching you like this is… it’s magical. Don’t be shy.” He leant down for a taste, just a flicker of his tongue-tip into the stretched hole, scooping as much slick as he could onto his tongue. His kitten shuddered and moaned again, shivering, as he swallowed and purred. That was it for Soonyoung’s control; diving in head-first, he started to slowly eat Jihoon out. “Good kitty,” he murmured into his entrance, kissing and nibbling and stroking to coax it to remain open. “Such a good baby, Jihoonie, you’re so fucking perfect.”

 

Jihoon keened high and intent as he deviated just a little to nip at his thigh, sinking teeth in to encourage a love-bite. He trailed them down and up, painting his kitten like the galaxy he had spoken of, until he was so weak-kneed that he had to wrap arms around his thighs and hold him up. Even then he didn’t give him any surcease. His kitten was flexible enough that he could prop him up like that and trail licks and kisses over his balls, then the underside of his hard pink cock. It was so tempting to kick at the pretty pink head, so he did it, tasting precum mixing with slick on his tongue like the best banquet over.

 

“Soonie,” Jihoon gasped. “Soonie, damn you, I’m not going to last long… please. Please fuck me.”

 

“Hm?” he purred against the base of Jihoon’s cock, letting the rumbles tease through it. “Are you sure?”

 

Jihoon’s tail lashed at his face, soft and piqued. “Yes!” he shouted.

 

Smiling, Soonyoung let him sink back to his knees before he scratched in the bedside drawer for the lube they preferred. “Do you want to do the honours? Or shall I?”

 

The speed at which Jihoon grabbed the lube surprised him, but seeing him toss it hard enough to the side to crash into a chair made his eyebrows raise, as did the way Jihoon pressed him back against the wall, then straddled his lap.

 

“Kitten…” he tried.

 

“No,” Jihoon growled, lifting a finger to place them on his lips. “Shut it. This is my moment.” Shuffling a little higher on his knees, he reached behind him to hold Soonyoung’s cock, and slowly started sinking down on it.

 

Soonyoung felt like cursing as his kitten’s body started to swallow him up. Even with all their work the past week, it was slow going, but from the look on Jihoon’s face it was some kind of surreal experience, and he winced at the high keening yelps, the slow, grunting sighs, the symphony that came from Jihoon’s throat as he worked himself down on his cock. He was wet enough, but still so _tight._

Minutes – hours? – later as Jihoon managed to get the last little inch of Soonyoung’s monster inside him, he sat back with a gasp, feeling as if he had been running a marathon. He had never been split like this before, never had to stretch this wide. It felt as if every part of his being was impaled, as if things had had to move just a little, as if Soonyoung shifted his fundamental being into a dimension new and unique. Looking down, he blushed to realise that it was showing; that his alpha was huge enough that he actually showed the cock inside him. He reached down wonderingly, felt at the fat head of it.

 

“Jihoon,” Soonyoung slurred, hands shaking as he put them on his lover’s thighs. “Jihoon, please.”

 

Jihoon bit his lip as he looked at Soonyoung’s eyes, seeing the desperation in them, and slowly started lifting himself off. It felt more like a religious experience than any he had had so far, and he had to do it so slowly that he strained and gasped softly. It wasn’t enough to see, he had to feel as well, so he reached behind him and petted at the huge cock he could barely take, even with so much preparation. “God, Soonie,” he giggled, abruptly high. “You feel fucking incredible.”

 

Soonyoung didn’t have words, all he could do was watch Lee Jihoon, the hottest, cutest, sweetest person he had ever met ride him slowly. It was like a work of performance art the way his body rolled, the way he trembled and purred and took his fill. His kitten felt like a fucking supernova, and he already knew it wouldn’t last long. He had been torturing himself for days, mornings of rutting against his ass but not taking it, long nights of cuddling that had ended with Jihoon in his mouth or his hands, cracking apart in his hands. “Baby,” he muttered, hands shifting to support his hips, to reach around and pull him just that little bit more open. His legs came up to support him, giving his back something to rest against. “Lean back just a little… there.”

 

Jihoon gasped and whined, then shrieked as the new position pushed him just enough to feel Soonyoung’s cock slide perfectly against his prostate. His body kicked, the air around them heavy with pheromones, and deep inside himself he could feel his body producing more slick until it churned and mixed in with Soonie’s precum, only to dribble out of him each time there was even a little give. He felt pinned, impaled, even as his alpha worked gently in and out of him.

 

He drifted, too caught up to pay attention to much but the monster splitting him open, even though he felt a mouth catch on one nipple, even when Soonyoung tilted his head sideways to start scenting him. His alpha took his time, licking and nudging at his neck at the same pace at which he fucked him so slowly, until he could feel tears trickle over his face. It was so different from their first encounters, so laden with feelings and meaning instead. He couldn’t keep up, cock spurting once, then twice to add to the mess between them, but his alpha kept going, kept petting him and calling him a good baby, kept nipping at his neck, until all reason sank and he turned into a creature of feelings.

 

Soonyoung felt the shift as it happened, he had been waiting for it, anxious and eager for it. His kitten had finally let go of everything and simply existed in the moment. Between one moment and the next Lee Jihoon turned from cranky and brilliant, demanding and fierce, into sweetness that wanted to melt in his arms, that purred and scratched and whined each time he entered him. He had already made him come once, but he wanted twice and he got it, watching his beautiful half-lidded eyes and flushed cheeks as his body panted and shook and he painted his own belly white.

 

“Jihoonie,” he murmured. “My beautiful, beautiful kitten. I love you so much, you know?” He could feel his end approaching, feeling the hot little body around him clench and work him so hard he practically saw double. He chose to bury his face in Jihoon’s neck instead of sight, nibbled the patch he had been wanting to bite forever, and smiled against it as he felt lightning ripple through his frame, climax finally coaxed out. “Mine,” he whispered into the spot as he sunk his teeth into it as he started filling Jihoon’s small body. “Mine, mine mine…”

 

Jihoon was wailing underneath him, shaking so much that he clenched him tight as he continued to bite at the mating mark. He wrapped everything he had around him, arms and legs, and held on as he finally claimed his love the only way his inner beast knew, with saliva and cum and euphoria. He wasn’t a canine, he couldn’t knot him, but he did the next best thing, and faded into darkness still filling his kitten’s body as he held him as tightly as he could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. This is part one of the night. I'll get on part two when I recover from writing this, but there's a lot more smut coming. I just felt that it was right that their first time should be feels and not just kinkiness. 
>   2. I also feel I should tag better to warn people. 
> 



	8. Chapter 8

He wasn’t out for long. When he came to he was still surrounding Jihoon, still pumping into his poor body, and he lay there trying to recover as he waited for it to end. Tiger biology was strange at times, uneasily mixed with humans, which was why there were so few of them, but he didn’t want to hurt his kitten by pulling out prematurely and rousing his own instincts. Jihoonie was out like a candle in any case.

 

Long minutes later he was finally able to ease out of his kitten, and substituted the jewelled plug for his cock so that he could get up. His legs felt like limp noodles when he went to the bathroom to retrieve some hot water and a washcloth. Carefully, so very carefully, he wiped his kitten as clean as he could, transferred him to the dry side of the bed and cleaned the rest of the place before gently tending to his kitten’s neck. It did something to him to see his little omega sleep throughout his ministrations, strong arms curled around his belly.

 

Kwon Soonyoung had long ago caught a case of the feels, but if he hadn’t, the sight of Lee Jihoon fucked to a fare-thee-well would surely have done it now.

 

About fifteen minutes had passed before Jihoon finally stirred, a shiver racking over his body. Even with a light sheet over him, Soonyoung could see it travelling over him, and he smiled, one hand tightening gently on his shoulder.

 

“Wgjdf,” Jihoon got out as he cracked one eye open, but the second he moved he curled in even more, arms moving from his thighs to rest protectively over his belly as his lips twisted into a pout. “I wanted to wake up with you inside me,” he sulked. “You promised to fill me up, you cheater.”

 

Soonyoung laughed softly and scooted over, pulling him up to rest between his thighs. “Here,” he murmured, placing large hands on his belly. “Feel.” Gently, but with increasing pressure, he massaged the muscles there. “I had to leave a little space for later, baby. What about round two and three?”

 

Jihoon gasped at the singing feeling in his body. Previously, being an omega had been somewhat disgusting; he didn’t _like_ some of the things that it meant for him, but Kwon Soonyoung was magic, and had eased those fears as well as he eased all his other fears. “Mmmh,” he purred. “That feels better than I thought, Kwon. A second round though? What makes you think I’m going to let you near my ass again?”

 

“I thought you were being a good kitten tonight, Jihoonie,” Soonyoung murmured as he gently kissed first his mating mark, then the shell of Jihoon’s one ear. “I thought I taught you what happened to bad kittens.” Inspired, he reached to tweak the two tiny pink nipples on Jihoon’s chest, playing and fondling them until they were full and hard, and his kitten was squirming again. Like this, with Jihoon tucking his head beneath his chin and his hands full of his squirming shape, he thought of everything he wanted to do to him still and shuddered.

 

Jihoon’s cheeks felt as if they were going to stay permanently red. It wasn’t _difficult_ to feel Soonyoung’s cock grow hard and interested again, not when it pressed into his back, and he pouted thoughtfully. As much as he loved what they had just had, he liked it wild and kinky too. He liked that Soonyoung wasn’t afraid to handle him in bed, as gentle and soft and caring as he was in real life. “You like spanking me way too much. I bet you’d even get off doing it like this, no matter that you just wrecked my ass.”

 

Soonyoung laughed softly and kissed his other ear. “Baby,” he mentioned idly. “Who said anything about spanking? If anything, you’re the one that likes to park your little ass in the air for me.” His mouth slipped down to suck on the earlobe, bit it delicately. "I bet you wouldn't mind if I collared you and kept you like that. Perhaps I'll do that still, if you over-work again."

 

Jihoon paused, thought and slammed his mouth shut, trying to look away. He felt bizarrely embarrassed and just a trifle turned on.

 

“I like a lot of other things too,” Soonyoung admitted. “I want to tie you to the bed and ride you for hours, love. I want to drizzle your slick over slices of melon and feed them to you so you could taste the best taste in the world. I want to see you suck me off, lips stretched, and hear how hoarse you get. I _do_ want to spank you, and see you shake and shiver as you try to keep from leaking my cum all over those pretty, pretty balls of yours. I want to cover you in cream and lick you clean, I want to drip wax down your spine until you’re so trapped in your feelings you beg for me. I want to make you wear a remote-controlled dildo to a class, so that when it buzzes and you squirm and blush, you’ll know that I’m thinking of you. I want to see you in lace and silk and lick you like that until you come in your pretty, pretty panties.”

 

 _Holy fuck,_ Jihoon thought messily. _Yes please, can I say yes please?_

 

Out loud, clearing his throat, he barely got words out. “The… um. Yes?” Soonyoung’s hand on his slowly-filling cock made his back arch, made the plug push just a tad deeper into him, and an aftershock surprised him, zipping along his nerves. His thighs were buzzing from the sensation, and he looked down, only to goggle. He hadn’t even felt Soonyoung biting him that many times, but there they were, spiralling traces of marks mapped out like a constellation all over the insides of his thighs, trailing down as far as he could see. “Holy fuck, did you turn into a piranha? Am I mated to a piranha now?”

 

Soonyoung snorted and smacked one sensitive inner thigh before stroking it possessively. “This from the guy that literally wrote his name in permanent marker on the inside of one of my outfits.”

 

“Serves them right,” Jihoon muttered sulkily. “Drooling over my alpha like that.” He rolled up into a sitting position as well as he could, swinging his legs off. Seconds later, as he tried to stand, Soonyoung had to catch him as his legs collapsed. He was hauled back onto bed, right back into his favourite position to cuddle with Soonyoung, propped up.

 

“You’re staying,” Soonyoung growled into his neck. “Not only are your legs weak, but a tiger doesn’t let his mate go that easily when they're freshly mated. Don’t pull away from me, Jihoonie, or I’ll fuck you until you can’t move. I don't want to hurt you.”

 

Shocked, Jihoon considered his options, biting his tongue-tip. Finally, with deliberate motions, he pulled away from Soonyoung again, scooting over the bed on his hands and thighs to get off the other side.

 

Between one second and the next, Soonyoung was on him like a dervish, instincts pricked too hard to ignore. Jihoon nearly yelped as his legs were parted and he was propped up on his knees so that Soonyoung could run his length between his cheeks. Back and forth, back and forth, as his hands encouraged his ass higher with a sharp smack. “Higher, Jihoonie,” Soonyoung slurred, too caught in sudden arousal and lost for clear speech. “Come on, higher.”

 

His fingers touched the plug, pulled it back just a fragment before pushing it back in, and Jihoon keened as he let his torso sink down, ass presented high and pretty for his alpha. One smack turned into two, because he knew his kitten liked it. Stopping for a moment, he pulled the plug out slowly but smoothly, ignoring the thud as it fell by the bedside, and spanked Jihoon again. The swats cracked through the air, cum and slick spilling in little spurts. “Tighten up,” he advised relentlessly. “You wanted me inside you, right?”

 

Jihoon couldn’t breathe above the crazy thudding of his heart. He had asked for it, he knew he had asked for it, but he hadn’t realised precisely what his mate meant, not until now when he was stuck with his ass high in the air, trying desperately to tighten up enough. It was difficult, so difficult, because he had to tighten muscles that just wanted to go limp and relaxed. Soonyoung tanned his ass red, far more than he did the first time he had done this, and it stung so much but so wonderfully that he screamed into the pillow, begging and begging for surcease.

 

His alpha didn’t give it to him. Instead, when he had tightened up enough to provoke a rumble of approval, Soonyoung wrecked him open wide again, shoving the fat, blunt head of his cock in to stretch the sensitive, stinging skin. He felt massive between his thighs, so large that he felt his spine pop as he sank to enjoy it more, and his small hands fisted into their sheets.

 

“And now, kitten?” Soonyoung purred into his ear as he leant forward to cover him with his body. “Is this what you wanted? Did you want me to wreck you so badly you couldn’t walk?”

 

“Yes!” Jihoon screamed. “Yes, god damn you, fuck you, yes!” He paid for his potty mouth seconds later, nearly passing out as Soonyoung spanked him, this time with his cock deep in him. It felt massive and alien and comforting all at once, and he felt full, so fucking full that he didn’t know where up and down were anymore.

 

Soonyoung picked his omega’s hands from the sheets, wrapped them around the carved wood of his headboard, then anchored his in the wood just above them. It gave him enough leverage to start fucking his kitten so hard that their bed creaked and banged against the wall, but he didn’t care, he didn’t _care_ because he was cock-deep in Lee Jihoon and it was the best place ever. Right here, curled over his mate who was spread open and taking him, it was the only place he had ever wanted to be. He _used_ him, used his lovely body to satiate his body’s instincts, leaning down to nip and bite at his neck again. “Tears, baby?” he murmured as he smelled them. “You asked for this, remember?”

 

Jihoon wasn’t sure why he cried so much; it felt like his body was using every method of relieving the crazy pleasure spiralling in him that it could. He was yelling into the pillow he was crying in, drooling, all as his alpha used him so wonderfully. He wasn’t aware of what he was saying, or whether he had already come; instead, he floated in that white light behind his eyes that he could rarely reach. He felt Soonyoung’s pace falter, felt him pressing even harder, and finally felt that blistering heat shooting into him as his alpha came and came. His knees collapsed, his everything collapsed, and he flopped to the side.

 

Soonyoung caught him gently, wrapped him in his being, and watched his mate stare blind-eyed at the other wall as he rode him like that, hips shivering and thrusting, trying to pour as much of him into his omega’s body as he can. He leant in to kiss his cheek dry, to finally whisper loving words into his ears.

 

It took a long time for Jihoon to come down from whatever that place was; he had heard of omegas describing as a kind of headspace, which sounded strange to him, but also correct now that he had experience with it himself. “Mrrrrr,” he got out, tongue thick. “Mmm, alpha, more…” Barely aware of Soonyoung’s soft curse, he felt his hips pick up speed again, and this time, when his alpha plucked and pinched at his nipples, splayed a hand over his too-full stomach to anchor him, he jumped straight back into that light and didn’t leave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. Part two. So, um, there might be more, but that's only gonna be here tomorrow my time. 
>   2. Does anyone want to see other pairings here? 
> 



	9. Chapter 9

Waking up was a painful process for Jihoon. It creaked through him as if the dawn crashed in like a bull in a china shop. He felt tired in every bone of his body, felt roughed-up and fucked sideways and used. He didn’t need to open his eyes to know that he was covered in hickeys and scratches, and that his joints were creaking at the thought of having to move. He wasn’t sure he _could_ move. It was only the warm arm over his side, the soft breath in the nape of his neck that made him feel a little better.

 

He had never fucked so much in his life. He hadn’t quite believed when Soonyoung said that mating was intense for a tiger, but the past four days he had been fucked so raw that he was half-convinced his ass was moulded to the shape of Soonyoung’s cock. Even now, it cost only a tiny thought of movement to feel that his alpha was still in him, still plugging him up, and still huge – albeit not as huge as that time on their third day when he foolishly tried to suck him off, _dear god_. He had been filled, emptied out, bathed with exquisite care, and then filled again, over and over in some kind of arcane biological ritual.

 

He could remember bare snatches of grasping moments to eat, when Soonyoung held a power bar for him to nibble on, or had to assist him to go to the bathroom, or held his head for him to sip from a bottle of water.

 

It had been a humbling experience for him, that kind of claiming. As he rocked forward, trying to slide off, it tugged and teased still, causing aftershocks to ripple through him until he pulled himself free. His pucker tried to close but failed, and he stifled a moan against his pillow as he hunted around for his plug. It went in slickly, with no resistance whatsoever, and he finally made it off the bed.

 

Walking was an ordeal as well, and starting the shower was nearly beyond his capacity. He was glad Soonie was still asleep, because it meant he could stumble into the shower and get it started, then collapse on the floor to soak in the hot spray. Getting clean was another matter. He rested his head against the seat of the shower and pulled the plug out again, feeling Soonyoung’s cum stream thick and viscous down his thighs. Slowly, hesitantly, he started cleaning himself with two fingers, then three, embarrassed and miraculously still turned on. Biting his lip, he turned just a little and perked his ass up so that the shower could fall directly on his hole. He reached behind him to hold it open wide, so that the water could beat and pulse against it as he cried weakly, stuttering through a gut-clenching  climax.

 

He came dry for the first time in his life from that, barely managing to stumble from the shower before the water turned cold. Stopping it, wrapping a towel around his waist, he went to make coffee and reassure everyone through text that they were just fine, just a little busy. It cost him a few minutes, but he nearly had a second orgasm as he sipped at his coffee, hot and strong and sweet. It gave him energy to slink back into the bedroom, then the bathroom, pulling out his wet washcloth and going to clean his mate.

 

It wasn’t difficult rolling Soonyoung on his back, nor was it difficult to clean him up. The bed was the problem, their sheets were filthy with slick and cum, and he struggled to make the bed up new around his alpha’s deadweight, muscular body. When he finished he felt as if he had run a marathon, and he creeped back onto the mattress, drinking his coffee slowly as he thought back over his life before Soonyoung.

 

He had hated being an omega, cursed his body when it didn’t fit his soul. Everyone had thought he’d be an alpha. _He_ had thought he’d turn into an alpha, but no. His body had decided to come out shorter than average, delicate and slender, and he had had to work his ass off to sweat some muscle onto it. Even when he succeeded, when he had turned into the strongest being he could, he had still been denigrated for being an omega, not to mention the constant filthy offers to breed him, to ‘fill him with pups’. He hated the thought, he _still_ hated it, but…

 

He bit his lip as he looked sideways at his slumbering mate. Soonyoung wasn’t like normal alphas. He didn’t try to denigrate others to make him stronger. He wasn’t afraid of being an absolute airhead, or to cavort and dance about like an idiot, or of doing cute things. Even in the beginning he hadn’t hesitated to let Jihoon protect himself; he had acknowledge that Jihoon could do it without any stress, had literally walked away from him hard so many times, and hadn’t pounced. Once. Until now. It filled Jihoon’s heart, made him imagine that maybe the future was looking up. That maybe he didn’t have to be so fucking strong all the time, that he had somewhere to be a little weak in too.

 

He finished the last of his coffee, put the mug away and wandered away from the bed again to prepare a little surprise for Soonyoung before he made his way to the living room to watch cartoons.

 

* * *

 

Soonyoung felt like death warmed over as he woke. The bed was empty, which made him sulk, but also clean, containing only his kitten’s scent beyond the soap he liked to use. Groaning, he stumbled to the bathroom, took a shower and tilted his head sideways. He could hear cartoons coming from the lounge, as well as the smell of coffee from the kitchen, which meant that his kitten was awake and functioning – although how well he could function was another matter entirely. Soonyoung groaned as he remembered the past four days of constant fucking – it would be a miracle of Jihoon even allowed him close anymore.

 

Drying and dressing, he towelled his hair dry before pulling on a pair of shorts, not bothering with a shirt. He was still carding his fingers through damp hair when he stepped into the lounge, smiling at the sight of the burrito on the couch. “Good morning, Jihoonie,” he muttered, going to kiss him on the top of his head, then each softly warm cheek. “Are you okay? Was I too rough with you?”

 

Jihoon wriggled close like a worm, not yet willing to show off what he hid underneath the blanket, and laid claim to his mate’s chest. “Shh,” he muttered imperiously. “They’re getting to the good part. I'm good.”

 

Soonyoung laughed softly and let him be, wrapping an arm around him instead. It wasn’t until two shows later, lightly rubbing at Jihoon’s blanket-covered back, that he felt something strange. “Baby? Are you ok? What’s that?”

 

Jihoon refused to look at him. Instead, curling into a ball, he moved to rest his head on Soonyoung’s lap, right in the crease between strong thigh muscle and groin, just where it was most comfortable. “Perhaps you should look,” he mumbled into the folds of blanket around his mouth.

 

Frowning, Soonyoung reached down as far as he could and began to unwrap the blanket from an unusually squirming Jihoon, who fought to keep bits of it. His breath rushed out in one fell swoop as he saw a hint of hose though, and he pulled it up-up-up until he saw the broad band of lace around his thighs and little bows on it that connected to something stretchy. The oyster-black brought out the smooth texture of his skin, made it gleam, and he swallowed as he hiked the blanket totally off instead. Jihoon didn’t have much more on, just the most sinful garter he had ever seen in the same dark steel as the hose, and a panty that was so tiny it barely deserved the word ‘underwear’. All it was was a band of the same lace as the stockings folding tightly around his slim hips, with a scrap of satin that changed into a string of pearls halfway down its length. To top it all off, his kitten’s tail had a small bow around its base as well, with a tiny bell and charm that dangled from it. A tiny charm with his name on it.

 

His heart kicked in his chest as he saw how Jihoon refused to look at him, cheeks still red. “Wow,” he managed to get out. “Fucking wow.”

 

Jihoon hid his small smile against his alpha’s thigh, though he gasped as one strong hand plucked at the lace around his waist, snapping it gently against his tummy. “Cartoons, Soonyoung,” he declared imperiously, as if he didn’t know what impact he had. “I wanna watch cartoons.”

 

“You watch all you want, baby,” Soonyoung murmured, decorously resting one palm on Jihoonie’s thigh. It didn’t stay there, casting back and forth slowly from mark-littered thighs to smooth calves and up again. He plucked gently at the charm, ignored Jihoonie’s gasp, and teasingly played with the garter strings. He had all the time in the world to play, but he wanted to feel first.

 

Minutes later, with Jihoon wriggling gently from the teasing touches, he finally sought out the scandalous underwear, feeling how the chain of pearls gently pushed his pretty cheeks apart. They were just a little wet too, just a little slick, and he grinned. Slowly, idly he lifted his kitten’s tail out of the way, ignoring its petty, irritated lash, and gently pressed the beads against his swollen pucker. He got his reward in the sound of a softly moan and a roll of his kitten’s hips.

 

With Jihoon still refusing to look at him, focusing intently on the television, he worked to slip the panties off him entirely before folding them in half, pressing the bottom-most pearl slowly into his gleaming hole. It went in slowly and carefully, then two more, until he had finally stuffed his mate’s ass full of them. “Jihoonie,” he whispered. “How does that feel? Sore?”

 

Jihoon bit his lip and shook his head, hips still rolling. “No,” he whispered. “Good. S’good.”

 

“Okay, baby,” Soonyoung muttered and rested one hand on his head to caress his hair. With the other he started working, coaxing slick to form with each push and pull, until the pearls gleamed in the overhead light and Jihoon’s hips worked constantly, needily at them. It cost only a small snap of his waist to pull the pearls off the underwear and toss the lingerie part away. Concentrating slowly, he pulled them out, then pushed them in one for one as deep as he could, until Jihoon’s pucker stretched around the last bead and there was only a little bit of string left outside his body. In and out, in and out, until Jihoon decided to ignore the cartoons as well and turn to mouth at his cloth-covered cock inside, sucking and nuzzling it wet through his shorts.

 

Soonyoung’s hand curved deftly over his mate’s hip, playing with the garter again, and let him clench and tighten around the pearls, get used to the strange feel inside him. When he tested them again, pulling them out with a series of pops, his omega mewled beautifully for him, arching his hips backwards to try and keep them inside. “Jihoonie,” he murmured, pushing them back in one by one again. “Will you wear this for me one day?  I’ll get you some proper beads, but the thought of you in lace beneath your clothes makes me weak, baby. Just the idea of you sitting in your chair in your studio with these filling you up makes me weak. Please?”

 

Jihoon grinned against his cock, clearly happy that his surprise had worked. “On one condition,” he murmured, reaching with one hand to free Soonyoung’s cock to thump against his belly. Reaching behind him, he pulled the pearls free with a whine, body trembling from the little shocks, until he could wrap them around Soonyoung’s huge cock, coating him in slick before he began licking him clean from root to tip. “I want roleplay,” he demanded prettily. “If I do that for you, I want to play innocent alpha and naughty kitten in that big studio of ours. We can sneak in at night, and you can introduce yourself to me again, and we can fuck right there, surrounded by a million candles.”

 

Soonyoung swallowed. “Will you let me drip wax onto you?” he asked, voice hoarse with arousal.

 

“All over,” Jihoon murmured, tickling at the sensitive spot underneath Soonyoung’s cock with his tongue. “Do you want to see my hole clench and slick leak out every time you drip wax onto my balls?”

 

“Yes,” Soonyoung got out gutterally. “God yes.”

 

Jihoon laughed and sat up at that, untangling the pearls onto to sink himself down on his favourite cock. It was difficult, still stinging a bit, but it also felt like coming home, especially when Soonyoung positioned him a little better. With his legs supporting him he could actually take it a little easier himself, control the pace. “Soonie,” he purred, leaning in to bite his lower lip fussily. “Soonie, why are you blushing? You’re such a fucking dirty pervert, I don’t even want to know what’s going on in that mind of yours.”

 

Soonyoung gripped at his hips, made their pace a little faster and harder. “I’m thinking of feeling the sprung wood underneath my back as you suck me off,” he whispered. “I’m thinking of pressing some real anal beads into you, so that I can pull them out later that night and drink a river of your slick. I’m thinking of putting some play-rings on those cute little nipples of yours, so they stay hard and puffy for my teeth. I’m thinking of all the places I want to fuck you in public, so that everyone knows you’re mine.”

 

“Fuck, I was right,” Jihoon keened, riding his tiger vigorously. “So fucking dirty.” He bit his lip and forced his eyes open to smile as widely as he could. “Do you know what I did this morning whilst you were asleep?”

 

“Oh god,” Soonyoung groaned. “I don’t think I can take you telling me anything else.”

 

Jihoon stilled his frantic grinding, slipping his hands down to his belly to fist his own cock. “I got into the shower,” he murmured, grip tight and hot. “And I picked my ass up and let the shower clean me, until I came from the feeling of the water beating against me as I slowly got rid of your cum in me.” He licked his lips. “I wanna do that again. Do you wanna watch that, alpha?” he purred. “You’ll have to fill me up again, or I won’t be able toooo…”

 

Soonyoung snapped, turning them to press his mate back into the sofa as he started fucking into him again. His omega was panting and squirming under him, small feet waving in the air with pointed toes, and he made the cutest, softest mewl of his life as he came from the rapid pace, fingers painting Soonyoung’s belly with his cum, rubbing it in insistently. The tiger couldn’t hold on any longer and burst, slowing down as his seed pumped into his mate.

 

“Mmm, Soonie,” Jihoon said with a pleased little wriggle, still painting his cum all over Soonyoung’s chest and stomach. “Soonie, screw the cartoons, carry me to the bathroom again. You’re all dirty, baby.”

 

It was the fastest Soonyoung had ever moved. His morning looked _incredible_. Not only had his mate not beaten him away from his ass with a stick, but had worn lovely lingerie; if he had his choice, it would be all Jihoon wore from now on. With that in him and a good chance of shower sex, he whistled as he made his way to the bathroom.


	10. Chapter 10

Jihoon sat at his workstation in his studio, trying not to move too much. It had been their two week anniversary yesterday, which was something so patently ridiculous that he hadn’t thought he’d ever celebrate it. He had forgotten about Soonyoung somewhere in there though, because he had gotten flowers (which he didn’t mind), gifts (which he definitely didn’t mind) and the best sex of his life (which he had not believed could happen but he was very happy about.) Everything was fine, just as long as he didn’t move very much. As long as he kept a pillow underneath his ass because damn.

 

He breathed in and out slowly and winced, then bucked as his nipples brushed against his shirt, rasping ever so gently to and fro. Blushing – thank fuck no one was around to see – he gingerly reached up to touch one gingerly, and coloured when he realised it was still as hard and as puffy as it was this morning, when his alpha had spent nearly a quarter of an hour playing with them, the locked tiny hoops around them to make them stay that way. Something about punishment. Whatever the fuck, it was terrifyingly efficient.

 

Two minutes later, when he caught himself gingerly stroking one hard nub, he cursed out loud and slammed his earphones off his head, curiously lifting his collar to peer inside.

 

Definitely hard still, with just a hint of a singing throb, distended enough that it was only the oversized hoodie he had on that stopped the world from being able to see them. A tiny pinch sung pleasure all the way down to his sore ass, and he bit his lip on a moan.

 

Seconds later as the door to his studio slammed open he guiltily dropped the sweater back into place, preparing to tear whoever it was a new asshole.

 

The train of thought left him as he saw Seungkwan. Though he didn’t often tell him, Boo Seungkwan had one of the best voices he had ever heard, and he considered the first-year almost like a baby brother, which made his current condition worrisome. He was sweating and ruffled, hair stuck to his forehead, and his pupils distended so wide they were practically all black. “Seungkwan-ah?” he said hesitantly, stepping forward only to be slapped through the face by a wave of pure pheromones. _Shit, oh shit._

 

“Hyung,” Seungkwan’s voice cracked. “I didn’t know where to go, I’m so sorry, I’m so… it just started, hyung, I don’t know what to do! Everyone’s growling at me and I feel sick, like the world is sandpaper, hyung, and I can’t breathe deep…”

 

“Shhhh,” Jihoon murmured, taking his soft hands. “Shh, it’s okay, Seungkwan-ah. It’s a heat. We felines have them, okay? Didn’t they tell you about this in high school?”

 

“Yes!” Seungkwan wailed. “But it’s never happened before, I thought I was one of the sterile crosses, oh my fuck, what am I going to _do_?”

 

It was a bad situation; there was no way Jihoon could take care of him here, and in the state his junior was in he’d be a lure for every fucking alpha in the university. “I wish I had known,” he fussed, turning to haul a bottle of water closer and pressing it into Seungkwan’s trembling hands. “We could have booked a heat dormitory, gotten you there safely….no! No, don’t cry, okay?” Worried, he sank down next to Seungkwan, wrapping one arm around him. “It’s okay, baby, it’s okay, it’ll be fine.” He felt awkward as fuck with all the endearments, but it seemed to soothe his kid, as did the way he rubbed his back. “It’s okay. Hyung will sort this out, okay?”

 

With Boo Seungkwan sobbing and gasping on his lap, his mind whirled. He couldn’t invite anyone over, because his protégé smelled like the magical version of catnip, and he couldn’t order in either, because someone would have to open the door and the scent’d get out…

 

Finally, driven by desperation when Seungkwan started creeling from pain, he dug his phone out of his pocket. “Hey,” he muttered when his mate picked up. “Uhm… Soonie, I’m kind of in a situation.”

 

It was like magic. In the space of ten minutes, Soonyoung showed up with a prescription blocker from the pharmacy, a couple of hot packs and a large blanket; not only did he manage to get Seungkwan to drink the pills, but he wrapped him up in the blanket and picked him up as if he weighed nothing – which he might have done, the kid was almost a hand taller and yet weighed only a few kilos more than Jihoon himself. His heart squeezed into a tiny, delicate thing as he watched his alpha carry him out, and hoped he hadn’t made the wrong decision.

 

Over an hour later, when Soonyoung finally returned, he was on the sofa as well, cuddled in his safety blanket. His eyes widened as his tiger came in, and his lip quivered into a pout before he managed to fight down a quivering exhale. “Thank you,” he muttered. “I didn’t know who else to call. Is he… um. Did you…?”

 

Soonyoung spared him a sideways look. “I made sure he got safely to the heat dorm on campus,” he said slowly. “And that’s it. He’s a kid, Jihoonie, and I have a mate.”

 

“Oh,” Jihoon muttered, feeling rebuked and pleased at the same time. “Sorry. It’s just, even I could smell that he was smelling good.”

 

“Hm,” Soonyoung agreed and patted his lap in invitation. “Come on. I can see that someone needs cuddles and a nap.”

 

Jihoon came a little out of his cocoon, counted his lucky stars and wiggled over to climb on his mate’s lap. He let go when Soonyoung tugged the blanket off and leaned down on the couch, and when his alpha spread it over both of them and offered him an arm to sleep on, he took it gladly. He wormed his nose into the hard, strong column of Soonyoung’s throat, closed his eyes and sighed out happily.

 

Three days later, escorting Seungkwan to a dual-practice reproductive specialist for male omegas for a post-heat checkup, he bit his lip and made an appointment for himself. A week thereafter he considered the packet of pills in front of him and put the first one solemnly underneath his tongue, wincing at the bitter taste. Medicine for all the genders might have made giant leaps in the past ten years, but the pills still tasted like shit.

 

==========================================

 

Soonyoung stared at the young male in front of him. Of all the people that he thought might take advantage of his TA hours at university, none of the names had been Chwe Hansol, and yet here they were, staring at each other across the desk. The kid was a tall drink of water and calm, almost too calm, as if he were chilled out by something other than a good smoothie.  The kid was also staring at him, albeit respectfully, with the only nervousness the slight tremble in his fingers as he plucked out his cordless earpods.

 

“You want to what?” he said carefully, in case his ears deceived him.

 

“I’d like your permission to court Boo Seungkwan,” the kid said again, smooth as fuck. “I really like him, and I thought if I could get your permission I might possibly survive asking Lee Jihoon-ssi. His own parents are on Jeju, too far away for me to ask, but from the way he talks about the two of you I thought it would be proper. Not everyone wants a mixed-race kid near theirs.”

 

Soonyoung fought not to smile. “We’re not all that parochial anymore. The person you should really be asking is Seungkwan.” He stared as the kid fidgeted with his hands, looked away from him. _Holy hell,_ he thought. _He’s got it almost as badly as I had it._ “Although I can understand you being scared of Jihoonie. I’m scared of him on the daily. May I ask what you are?”

 

Hansol shifted uncomfortably. “My father is a bear. My mother’s a wolf.”

 

Soonyoung’s eyebrows arched. Two very protective species, which meant he got that annoying canid overprotectiveness from both sides, which spoke wonders for his control as an alpha. The kid’s instincts had to be screaming to him on the daily. “That’s an unusual mix,” he said forthrightly. “My compliments, it’s not everyone that can handle a biology like that. I’ve seen way too many asswipes running around. Is that where you get your height?”

 

The kid finally cracked a little smile. “That’s what my mother says? I’m not as broad as my dad, I mostly got her build, but his height.”

 

“Be careful, or Seungcheol-hyung might decide to conscript you as a workout buddy for his pack,” Soonyoung teased. “If you want to date Seungkwan-ah, go right ahead, but if you turn into a tool or hurt him in any way, I won’t stop Jihoonie from taking your face off, okay?”

 

The kid’s smile lurked into being, brightened, and he practically floated out of the office. “Thank you!” he called over his shoulder. “Thank you!”

 

==============================================

 

“Jihoonie!” he sang as he entered their apartment that night. “You’ll never guess what happened during office hours today, I… oh? What is this?” Somehow, in the hours he had been away from the flat Jihoon had built them a blanket fort. The dining table formed the meat of it, but sheets draped from it to chairs, pinned not to flop loose. Beneath it, not only their mattress but all the pillows they had, from the sofa to the fancy roll pillow he had on his bed that he had never used, and only got because his mother insisted he buy it. Blankets made a nest, and Jihoon was firmly settled inside of the fort like a tiny pasha from an Arabian tale.

 

Bizarrely, he had also managed to drag the TV inside, as well as the game controller. Somehow it didn’t suit the soft, fairy-light ambiance to have what sounded like some kind of FPS death-match come from it.

 

His heart stuttered at the picture, and he was forced to admit again that he was in love with the incredible duality that was Lee Jihoon, attracted to his testy, tsun-tsun, savage side as well as the soft marshmallow no one else saw. So, putting down the take-out, he got to his hands and knees and crawled inside as well, dragging the chicken and soda in as well. He situated himself comfortably, got out his phone and got to answering his texts, ignoring the sounds of violent death.

 

The game ended fifteen minutes later on a win for Jihoon’s team, and his kitten turned to him with a smile.

 

“I love it,” he said before Jihoon could speak. “Here.” Handing the chicken over, he sat up and cracked open the soda, handing it over so his kitten could take first sip. “What gave you the idea though?”

 

“I had to sit through some asshole doctor trying to explain my natural tendency towards ‘nesting instincts’ today,” Jihoon grumbled around a mouthful of chicken. “I’m not a fucking bird.”

 

Soonyoung laughed softly. “And you didn’t deck them? I’m proud, baby. Why the check-up?”

 

Jihoon paused to scrutinise the tent wall. “Sex had been getting sorer,” he admitted quietly, and held up a hand as Soonyoung reared up with worry. “Calm down, Jungle King. It’s not because we’ve been overdoing it and you’re packing. It turns out I’m allergic to the combination of latex and spermicide most of them use. I didn’t notice it previously because I didn’t have all that much sex, but at the rate we’ve started going through them…”

 

“Jihoonie,” Soonyoung said, frowning as he put his soda down. “You should have told me the instant you felt something was wrong, baby. There are other ones, we could have tried them.”

 

“No other ones that are as effective,” Jihoon rebutted. “Anyway. It’s not a big deal. I started on the omega pill. It’s advanced enough now that it’ll keep my heats at bay until we choose to go through them.”

 

Soonyoung considered his mate. “Jihoon,” he murmured softly. “I would never have forced you into something like that anyway. I know you don’t like the idea of being a fertile omega. It’s your body, baby. Whatever you need to do to make yourself safe and healthy, okay?”

 

Jihoon stuck out his chopsticks, laden with a morsel of chicken. “Stop being such a sap,” he muttered. “At least now I can stomach the thought of attempting to suck you off again… if my jaw doesn’t dislocate. As it is, it’ll take me a day or two to heal up.”

 

Soonyoung put the chicken aside, put all the drinks aside and patted his lap. “Let me see?”

 

Rolling his eyes, Jihoon scooted over and hiked himself over Soonyoung’s lap, resting his chin in his hands and kicking his legs in the air. “I feel I should be charging cam-boy rates,” he muttered. “You like to look at my ass way more than is healthy.”

 

“I look at your ass because it keeps me healthy,” Soonyoung said innocently, and counted it a win when Jihoon snickered, even though he rolled his eyes.

 

===================================================

 

Soonyoung demonstrated the full sweep he wanted, arms graceful as he sunk down on the ground to the side. “Like this,” he called. “See the line it makes with your hip? Support it from below, don’t just swing them around like sausages, or I’m going to throw all of you at Lee-ssi’s ballet classes! Fifteen repetitions, split into A-group and B-group so that you can spot each other!” He was sweating like a pig and he felt filthy as he stepped back, tired. The dance practice had been going on for an hour at least, and the group seemed more interested in giggling and flirting with him than anything else. On the one hand, flattering. On the other hand, he was so far from interested it wasn’t funny.

 

“Hyung,” Chan whispered as he pulled back to tug his sweatshirt off, trying to unstick the thermal shirt underneath from his back. “Hyung, we’ve got a problem.” He looked feelingly towards the side.

 

Soonyoung followed his glance and blanched. There, storming down the long rows between the auditorium seats, was Lee Jihoon, stomping as if he was cracking the heads of his victims beneath his feet. He looked so angry that his hair was practically afluff. “Help,” he croaked out of the corner of his mouth to Chan. “What happened? What did I miss?”

 

“My fault,” Chan got out. “I took a photo for our dance IG and posted it, but you could still kind of see the girls hanging off you in the back. Some people made some, uh, racy comments. I didn’t even know Jihoon-hyung followed us? Hyung, I’m so sorry…”

 

“Shit,” Soonyoung muttered as he straightened. “It’s okay. I’ll deal with it. Can you, um, give me thirty minutes or so?”

 

Chan nodded, wide-eyed.

 

Soonyoung grabbed his sweatshirt and jumped easily off the stage, meeting his mate halfway. He could smell burning forests and treacle honey at fifteen feet, to say nothing of the way that Jihoon grabbed at his hand in public and yanked him down for a kiss. Wide-eyed – he had certainly not expected that – he followed him back out of the auditorium, up one flight of stairs and into a tiny classroom mostly used for storage, watching as Jihoon slammed the door shut and locked it before turning around.

 

His eyebrows hitched even further when his mate stomped back over to him and practically tore his pants open, yanking them down to his knees. He hadn’t been hard, but seeing the furious look in his kitten’s eyes _did_ it, and he knew it wouldn’t be that way much longer.

 

“I know that you wouldn’t mess around with them,” Jihoon got out, jaw working. “I know, okay? But this is my cock, attached to my mate, and they can go and fuck themselves, you’re mine!”

 

Jihoon’s words made his heart thump; for a second he actually felt lightheaded from how quickly blood rushed south. He watched as Jihoon kicked a box closer to sit on, then yanked him closer by the hips. “Jihoonie, baby…” His words stuttered to a stop as his mate leant forward, wrapped his hands around his cock and started to stroke it. It felt as if he got hard practically immediately and he gaped, because he had been a stupid dumb bastard that had apparently somehow gotten a possessiveness kink without noticing. How many times had he made Jihoon say that his body belonged to him? How had he not noticed how fucking hot it could be the other way around?

 

“Yours,” he promised as Jihoon licked a slow, idle line from root to tip, suckling at the fat head. The feeling of his mate’s tongue flicking across it, licking and laving, nearly made his knees falter.

 

Jihoon looked up at him, mouth still attached as he sucked gently, fingertips teasing over the prominent veins and long, thick curve of it. “Mine,” he muttered with a snarling, warning purr that vibrated and sung down Soonyoung’s length.

 

Soonyoung bit his lip at the way his kitten suckled and played with him, hands frantically reaching for some purchase on the wall. “Oh my god,” he got out, voice faint. “Oh my fucking god.”

 

His mate sat back to tug at his cock, using both hands to fist him hard and fast, smearing precum all along it. “Say it,” he said harshly.

 

The noise that came from his throat was a warble more than a groan; Soonyoung felt so turned on that he couldn’t see straight. “It’s yours,” he whispered. “My cock is yours. Jihoonie, please…”

 

Jihoon stood to kick the box away and helped to guide him onto the floor, leaving his jeans where they were. Instead, perching on his calves, he used his own weight to control him, leaning down to tilt his head and try and spread his mouth around his mate’s cock. It stretched at his jaw, widened it almost to the point of pain, and he couldn’t sink down very far the first time. Frowning, adjusting his position a little, he tried again, swallowing and sucking and licking around the underside, trying to coax more and more into his mouth.

 

“Oh holy fucking fuck,” Soonyoung whined, one arm thrown over his face, feeling gripped in the most exquisite agony of his life. He couldn’t pick apart the sensations to save his life: hot, wet, intense pressure, eager licking, hard strong palms, all of it mixed into some fantastic sensory overload that screamed through him, underscoring the ‘Ji-hoon, Ji-hoon’ beat his heart frantically chanted. When he fought his eyes open, peeking beneath his arm, his kitten was looking at him with those fire-eyes of his, glaring fit to kill even as he tilted his head, enough that Soonyoung could see one cheek rounding from his cock.

 

Hungry, almost desperate, Jihoon worked his boyfriend’s cock, trying to sync the movements of his hands and his mouth, managing to get it wet enough to swallow another inch, work just that little more into his throat. It would be fucked tomorrow, he’d sound like a hoarse twit, but it was worth it, so worth it to see his alpha crying and squirming under the lash of his tongue. Even when he just lipped along the shiny, swollen ridge, it beat warm and urgent against his lips, jerking as Soonyoung’s muscles quivered low in his belly.

 

He pulled back for a moment, just to rake hungry breath into his lungs, thumb massaging insistently at the small slit that was weeping precum. Insolently, feeling powerful, he reached behind him to slink a hand down the back of his pants, dragging his fingers through the slick between his cheeks, wetting them down thoroughly. He was slow about it, made sure that Soonyoung watched, until both of his hands gleamed and he locked them around Soonyoung’s cock again. Insistently, thoroughly, he rubbed it all off on the fat length.

 

Soonyoung wasn’t sure whether he was in some kind of fever dream or post-life heaven: seeing his kitten rub his slick so possessively over him made his brain spin. The scent would last for hours if he didn’t wash it off; from the take-no-prisoners look in Jihoon’s eye he didn’t think he’d get that chance.

 

Jihoon slowly worked at it, palming and fondling and making sure to embed his scent in every inch of Soonyoung’s cock before he leant to lip at it again, suckling sweetly just on the tip. He rode out the buck of his alpha’s hips, grinned at the broken cry he gave, and slowly sunk down over him again, working down as far as he could. It was a little easier, especially with the extra lubrication, and he sucked deeply, relaxing his throat, working it deep inside. Lazily, because he could, he reached to fondle his large balls, squeezing gently as he played with them.

 

Soonyoung came with a scream, pushed so hard over the edge that his back bowed in an arch and he cried, he _cried_ as his kitten drank him down, riding out the bucks into his throat. It seemed to last forever, but not a single drop of his cum escaped, swallowed down until he collapsed boneless and weak, cock slowly released with a clean, slick pop.

 

Sitting back on his haunches, Jihoon swallowed one last time, immensely proud of himself. “I told you,” he said hoarsely, referring to the first time he had tried to do it and failed miserably on their third night of mating. “I told you I could do it.”

 

Soonyoung’s body shuddered and shook, still singing with aftershocks; he felt as if he floated somewhere above his body, and it was too much to pick up a hand, let alone sit up. Jihoon had to help him sit up, and he flopped back against him boneless and replete. “Never doubted you,” he managed to mumble out. “I love you. Only you.”

 

“I know,” Jihoon murmured, tilting his head aside to gently kiss his neck as his hands petted at Soonyoung’s belly and sides, easing him down. Tilting his head, he rubbed his forehead and nose against his alpha, slowly starting to scent him, feeling the possessive instincts that he didn’t think he had ease with the action. “I love you too, okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. More life moments, and just a little smut. 
>   2. Seungkwan gets the shock of his life. 
>   3. Bears aren't territorial like wolves or primates can be, but they can be fiercely protective. Some of them are also excellent climbers, and in general they can be very curious. They are sometimes not all that aware of their surroundings and might be distracted by sensory info until they're so zoned out they sometimes walk into people. I thought that fit part of Vernon well, with some of the cuteness of a sub-adult wolf thrown in there. 
> 



	11. Chapter 11

“…covenant of family, and as such marriage…”

 

Soonyoung wanted to groan with boredom. He didn’t know the pair getting married. The guy was one of Jihoon’s lecturers, and he had to admit they looked cute together, but sitting where they were in the back of the long wedding hall the view was bad. Why they had chosen the fancy, long-ass formulary he had he didn’t know either, but the resort had to be charging them through the nose for it, given how quick their ceremonies normally went. This one had been dragging on an hour already. The only good thing about it was the aircon they had running; even with over two hundred people in here, the air was crisp and cool, scrubbed scrupulously clean.

 

At his side Jihoon wasn’t even bothering to pay attention. He had his earphones in and was playing something on his phone, concentration absolute. He envied him, but his phone had died fifteen minutes ago, battery dead.

 

Biting his lip, he ghosted fingers along his mate’s arm, trying to ask wordlessly to share, but Jihoon only gave him a quick glance before he looked back. Another caress got him an elbow in the ribs; he grinned at the pouty, concentrating pull of his mouth and tried to think of something else to occupy him.

 

The idea that came to him five minutes later was ludicrous. He looked around. They were the only people in the back row of the groom’s side, half-hidden behind a truly ostentatious flower arrangement. Nibbling his lip, he lifted his arm and draped it casually across his kitten’s back. It slid down slowly over the next minute, as slowly as he could make it. Jihoon huffed once, but went right on playing his game.

 

 _You go right ahead,_ Soonyoung thought rebelliously. _Nothing happening here. Go on with your game._

 

With his hand finally drooped to rest on his kitten’s butt, he let him have another minute before he squeezed it gently. It got him a shocked look, but whatever happened on the screen pulled his attention back. Soonyoung carried right on, palming and squeezing through the thin dress pants, eyeing Jihoon’s shaking fingers through the corner of his eye as he faced forward. Playing like that got him a squirmy omega in a few minutes, and he lifted his hand to slip under the jacket as he leant sideways with a whispered request to loosen his belt and button.

 

Jihoon gave him another shocked look at that, but complied with one shaking hand before he nailed his attention to his phone, trying to keep up with the game. Soonyoung, still smiling gently as if he loved listening to the ceremony, took advantage of that to slip his hand down the back of his pants, fingers creeping beneath his boxers, and got himself a palmful of ass-cheek, playing and fondling and teasing. He knew his kitten well enough to pick up the faint swallows and sighs he let out, and smirked as he went in for the kill.

 

Slowly wiggling one fingertip into the crease, he pressed it deftly against the tiny hole there and got a squeak for his efforts. The woman in the seat before them looked around to shush them, gave Jihoon the stink-eye for being on his phone, and turned back after Soonyoung mouthed an apology to her. Even as he did, he gently pressed and played with the little hole, working his calloused fingertip along the sensitive rim, until Jihoon bit his lip and turned off the game, cheeks flushing pink.

 

It didn’t take long to feel the slightest traces of moisture, and he rewarded his kitten with another finger gently pressing and playing, still just teasing slowly and gently.

 

Jihoon reached out with one shaky hand, resting it on Soonyoung’s thigh, and tried not to squeak again, fingers curling into the strong, taut muscle.

 

“Relax,” Soonyoung risked whispering, relieved when it didn’t carry enough to provoke the woman’s ire again. He paused for a moment to tap against the pucker, then slowly started to work his middle finger in. It felt warm and luscious and welcoming, just a gentle tease in and out, until he managed to work a second one in and started to scissor them, playing and stretching and persuading it to part a little wider. His kitten jumped when he tapped one finger onto his prostate, gently skimming it, and wriggled down a little more, took him in a little deeper.

 

Throughout the next fifteen minutes he slowly worked his omega up, never quite letting him crash over, but never letting him rest either. The ceremony ended, thankfully, and he slipped his hand free to lick it clean. “Thanks babe,” he whispered into one shell ear before he patted his kitten’s arching, straining cock through his pants. “I was really getting hungry.”

 

The reply he got was lost as everyone stood and applauded, but from the stink-eye he got, he was in for it later.

 

=================================================

 

Late that night, after he had apologised and made up for his ‘sheer stupid temerity’, Soonyoung sat in the warm Jacuzzi in the wide bathroom of the room, legs protectively around his kitten’s sides and arms holding him chest to back. He felt halfway asleep, lulled by the beats of their heart in sync, watching the stars come up through the thin, high window as the room flickered only with candlelight. The revenge sex had been great, but the soft cuddles afterwards like now really was his favourite, especially with his omega gathered close to his chest.

 

“Soonyoung,” the precious parcel in his arms muttered. “Soonie, I have a question. Don’t you ever miss having the kind of storybook omega? I mean, I yell and snarl at you all the time, and I never do any of the really traditional stuff, and…” His voice petered off sulkily.

 

Soonyoung tightened his arms a bit and gently washed water up his mate’s arms. “I have my storybook right here,” he murmured, wiggling his jaw on top of Jihoon’s head to emphasize his words. “I don’t really have time to miss all of that, even if I had wanted to. Is this still bothering you, baby? Should I go and slug some tool in the face for you?”

 

Jihoon snorted. “I punch harder than you do,” he muttered. “You’re the kicker, I’m the puncher.”

 

“Ah yes, I stand corrected. Correction, I lie corrected.”

 

“Oh my god, there really is no way supporting your sense of humour sometimes,” Jihoon muttered.

 

“Don’t lie, you love it.”

 

“I love _you_.”

 

Hearing Jihoon come out with it like that echoed in the empty space behind his breastbone. “What’s this about, hmm?”

 

Jihoon swallowed. “There are some things I don’t like,” he tried to get out evenly, considering his toes through the water. “But we’ve been together for a while, and you’re kinda cute, and there are some things I’d like to try?” Another swallow. “Remember about that roleplaying you owe me?”

 

“Yes?” Soonyoung murmured, leaning to kiss his mate’s shower-wet head. “The one where you ravish me to a fare-thee-well?”

 

Jihoon laughed shakily, pulling his legs up to tuck them into his alpha’s hold as well, so that he felt surrounded in his heat and love. “I want to…” He breathed, tried for courage again. “I want to try and be a real subby bottom sometime. It’s just been tickling in my head, and it’s not something that I want to do all the time, but I want to experience it once, if that’s okay? I mean, if that’s okay with you. I just want to see if I hate it as much as I thought.”

 

“Jihoonie,” Soonyoung said into the humid, quiet sanctity of the dim room. “We can try anything. If you feel like you want to do that, I’m more than willing. Sometimes it _is_ nice to hand over all the power to someone else. Do you want me to bottom for you sometime too?”

 

Jihoon blinked and pulled up straight to look behind him. “You’d do that?” he got out, amazed. “But you’re… an alpha?”

 

Soonyoung smiled at him. “It doesn’t mean that I can’t enjoy taking it, you know. I’m willing to try anything with you, Jihoonie, even if it means you want to dress me up in kitten ears and a collar.” He leant in to kiss his nose. “Don’t you get it yet?” he whispered against trembling lips. “I’ll say it until you do. I love you. You’re my mate. I’m so proud of that fact I want to tattoo it on myself. Honestly, Jihoonie, it stings my heart that I just proved how much I loved every inch of you, and you still doubt yourself.”

 

Jihoon’s chest felt as if it wanted to implode. Soonyoung was looking at him so lovingly, so earnestly that he wasn’t quite sure what to do, and promptly burst out in tears as the last ice around his heart cracked and melted away. He wailed like that, cried all the old bad memories out, arms cramp-tight around Soonyoung, until he felt light and free like thistledown drifting in the sunlight of Soonyoung’s love. “You’re forgiven,” he sniffled into his neck. “For the next year, you have a get-out-of-jail-free card. God, I love you. Thank you, thank you _so much_!”

 

“Don’t thank me,” Soonyoung whispered as he pulled Jihoon onto his lap with a rush of water, allowing him to fold up tiny. “Don’t ever thank me for that."

 

============================================

 

 

It took three days for Jihoon’s frantic purchases of that night to arrive at his studio, and it cost him a whole heaping load of blushes as he sank down on his chair to open it. The set of ears were first, soft and furry and the precise shade of his hair, set neatly on a band thin enough that he could conceal it with messy hair. The collar came next, a fanciful piece of satin and lace, embroidered with little pink bows and tiny golden flowers, lined on the inside with satin to protect his throat from chafing and a small golden adjustable clasp to lock it there. He flushed, almost unwillingly interested, as he pulled out a packet of real beeswax candles next, considering their golden tint against his skin.

 

The stockings came next, provided by the same cosplay shop that had made the collar, along with a pair of ruffly boy-short panties. He checked the hole in one end for his tail, blushing when he considered the pink embroidery circling it. Another garter, the same, and stockings that matched the ruffled, cute theme, complete with little satin bows. He felt cool metal and pulled out another set of nipple chains, a set that cascaded a froth of delicate silvery chains studded with tiny sparkling crystals.

 

The worst, comparatively speaking, was the plug right at the bottom of the box, sealed for hygiene but definitely the size he had ordered. It had a little loop at the end, just large enough for a pretty pink bow.

 

“Fuck,” he muttered. The box literally looked like some fetish birthday gift. Guiltily aware that his interest was a whole lot less academic than he thought, he put the box back together and went to the salon appointment he had set up. That night he went home early one of the first days in what felt like forever, and carefully got dolled up, looking at himself in the mirror. He wasn’t sure he liked what he saw there, how delicate and elfin everything made him look. Bending over the cabinet, working the plug slowly into himself, he resolved not to think about it further and instead went to curl up on their bed.

 

After the blanket fort episode, Soonyoung had splurged and gotten him more pillows and soft toys. Right now, curling around a whale plushie almost as big as he was, he hiked a thin coverlet over himself and slowly started to relax. It took a long time before he felt his back melt to boneless and limp, before his tail got the message from his nervous system that it was okay to calm down. Even then he felt odd, a little breathless and light.

 

He must have fallen asleep, because it was twilight when he opened his eyes again, and Soonyoung was sneaking around the room, lighting the candles he had put out. Yawning, he curled up a little more before he stretched out, giving his alpha his first visual treat.

 

Soonyoung, about to light the last of the candles, looked over his shoulder to find Jihoon smiling at him. It was a little wobbly, a little hesitant, but it steadied as he smiled back. His kitten looked absolutely wonderful from the tip of his fake little ears to his covered toes, and he swallowed as the candle-light cast little sparkles across the ceiling from the lovely tangle of chains he had on. “Hey baby,” he murmured, kneeling on the bed and creeping closer to kiss his smiling mouth. “You look gorgeous. Mmm, gods, you smell even better.”

 

“Thank you,” Jihoon whispered, going in for a second kiss. “I can wait if you want to take a shower first?”

 

Soonyoung bit his lip as he pushed the blanket off, hand shivering as they ran over the pretty lingerie, and played with the frills of the panty. “In a moment,” he promised. “You look like a vision, baby. So, so pretty. Did you get this all for me?”

 

Humming agreement, Jihoon looked down, lashes fanning on his cheeks. Somehow it felt better with Soonyoung near, where his scent could relax and arouse him. “Mmhm? You said that we could try this kind of thing.”

 

“I love it when pretty baby boys dress up for me,” Soonyoung teased, stroking his tail before following the path of the garters down, all the way over his stockings, then back up to give a gentle tug at the chain. “The collar’s making my throat close, baby, it looks so pretty against your skin.”

 

Jihoon, feeling encouraged, flipped onto his back to wriggle back into the pillows, grinning shyly. “Do you really like it? I feel pretty and smooth and a lot confused.”

 

“I love it,” Soonyoung assured him again. “I love how brave you are. But you know what’ll look better?”

 

“What?” Jihoon murmured, biting his lip.

 

Soonyoung freed his lip, kissing it gently as his large hand settled feather-light on his crotch, gently stroking the line of his cock. “I’m going to go and shower,” he said. “Whilst I’m gone, I want you to play with yourself, okay? You’d look so good filling these pretty panties out, so make sure you listen to your alpha, okay? But you’re not allowed to come in them. Your alpha wants you ready so that he can suck you off if he wishes. Did you make sure to put your plug in? I don’t want these ruined, and you get so messy, baby.”

 

“Yessss,” Jihoon whined, arching his hips. “I promise, alpha, I’ll be good.” He could barely fight his eyes open as Soonyoung left, and shakily slipped his hands down into the panties to wrap around himself. Perhaps those smutty novels he had stolen from his sister before he turned had _some_ things right…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. I changed some of the tags on this story, hope that's better? 
>   2. A tiny bit of public smut and some aftercare, and a bit of smut again. 
>   3. It's okay to tell your partner what you want. If you have a good one they'll listen to you and support you no matter what. 
>   4. Thank you to everyone continuing to read, I really do appreciate all your support! 
> 



	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's an author's note at the bottom that I'd really appreciate if you guys could read.

When Soonyoung got back from the shower his kitten was already gyrating in the midst of the pillows and blankets, plushie supporting his back. He smiled for a moment, watching the movements of Jihoonie’s hands through the frilly panty, and ambled slowly closer to lie on his side to watch, one hand propping up his head. The other reached to tap his kitten’s wrists just about the waist elastic. “Take them out,” he ordered. “I want to see if you’ve been a good boy.”

 

Sucking in a breath, Jihoonie slowly inched them out, resting his precum-slick palms on his stomach.

 

Below, standing in a clear arch, it was clear the panties were the only thing still holding his cock down and covered, as much as they were straining. Soonyoung tilted his head and walked his fingertips down into them, slowly fisting Jihoonie’s length with teasing strokes. “Good kitten,” he murmured, ignoring Jihoon’s squirm at the praise. Leaving after only a few strokes, he ignored the whine as well, and leant down to kiss gently at the slim, choker-clad throat. “You definitely deserved a reward. What do you want?”

 

Jihoon wriggled happily, mentally giving control over inch by inch, until he was in that fuzzy warm place he sometimes found when Soonyoung fucked the life out of him. “Whatever you want, alpha,” he murmured, reaching towards him with grabby, hungry hands.

 

Soonyoung rolled on his back and brought Jihoon with, kissing his nose before he wrapped his arms around his soft armful. “Whatever I want? What if I want to take you up to the stage and fuck you high above it?” he murmured. “Or if I want you to wear a dildo during your studio time tomorrow?” He kissed Jihoon’s ear again, feeling his kitten slowly tremble against him. There was no fear he could smell, no loathing, only the soft, musky tones of his arousal increasing, becoming something thick enough to bite into. What if I want to make these pretty panties and the ears and collar the only clothes you’re allowed at home?”

 

Jihoon cried out softly at the images tumbling through his mind, lips blooming open against the hard column of Soonyoung’s neck. Nuzzling into it, he scented him repeatedly. “J..Just them?” he whispered shakily. “What if other people came?”

 

“Hm, then they’re see what a beautifully behaved, pretty omega I have,” Soonyoung purred, running his hands down to cup Jihoonie’s pert ass.

 

Shuddering, Jihoon hid his blushing cheeks from view against Soonyoung’s chest. He knew, he _knew_ Soonyoung would never do that to him, but the promise of it whispered like this was potent, and he wondered just a little what it would be like. It felt so freeing, being able to imagine it in a safe environment, knowing that no word of this would ever travel beyond their bed. “Will it make you happy?”

 

“Gods, yes,” Soonyoung muttered as he rolled over to press his kitten deep into the bed, rearing up a little to enjoy his red cheeks. “It would make me so happy, especially covered in my scent.” With a press of his hips, he parted his kitten’s thighs and felt them lift to lock around his waist almost immediately, groaning at the feeling of the frills against his cock.

 

Jihoon fought his eyes open, drugged by the fantasy. “If that’s what you want I’ll do it,” he promised with a whisper, tilting his neck to display it to his alpha.

 

“Perhaps we’ll do that still,” Soonyoung muttered, pulling Jihoonie’s legs free so that he can sit up. “But for right now, I have another idea. On your knees, pet.” He leant back as his kitten scrambled to get to his knees and slowly, gingerly hiked the panties down until they wrapped around his knees. Reaching up, he pressed kisses to the base of the pure white tail before he tapped against the bow-bedecked plug, making sure it was seated correctly. “I like this,” he purred. “It looks just as pretty as the rest of you.”

 

Laughing softly as he heard his kitten mumble into the pillow, he reached for one of the candles burning closest, considering the naked stretch of back for a long time. Testing the wax on the back of his own hand, he finally tilted the candle just slightly, letting a few drops plink into the hollow of Jihoonie’s spine. It earned him a hiss and a pert wiggle of ass; encouraged, he did it again, this time letting it flow gently towards his shoulders.

 

“Ahhh,” Jihoon muttered, stretching. It didn’t hurt, not at all; instead, there was only a tiny momentary shock before hot, languid heat ran through him. “Mmm, that feels so good…”

 

Letting the candle burn for a moment more, building more wax, Soonyoung rubbed the cracked parts from his mate’s skin before reaching to pull the plug between his pretty cheeks out. “Tighten up, pretty boy,” he whispered. “Remember what we talked about?”

 

Jihoon bit his lip and nodded, head drooping downwards as he straightened a bit, pushing his ass higher into the air and submissively widening his thighs. Time teased him, right until the first waxy drop landed on the sensitive skin at the back of his balls and he howled. It felt _incredible_ , the fastest pinprick of shock running through him before that heat soaked in again. Although he tried, a little bit of his slick trickled out.

 

Soonyoung spanked him gently between his legs right across his hole, so very gently it was more of that lovely sting and no hurt. “Tighten _up_ ,” he said again, and let a thin little runnel of wax weep over the sensitive skin again. “You don’t want to disappoint me, do you? Be a pretty baby, okay? If you get wet enough that it runs down your thighs to your stockings, I’ll really have to punish you, you know?”

 

Trapped somewhere in a vortex of pleasure, Jihoon keened and struggled his best to obey, but the pleasure was too much for him. The insistent drip, drip, drip, the repeated tiny shocks out of nowhere, had him leaking down his thighs, so wet and juicy he could practically taste it in the air. His ass danced under the flick of the wax, fingers cramping desperately into the blankets for control. When his alpha lifted the drips higher, aiming them so that they just-just didn’t slip into his weeping pucker, he pressed his face into the pillows again and wailed with distress, coming all his stomach and thighs and panties, shuddering and begging for mercy.

 

He heard the candle land back on the table, but didn’t dare look up at his alpha’s face. When he felt his knees being lifted he went willingly, letting Soonyoung slip the dirtied lingerie off. “Alpha… I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry…!”

 

The first cracking spank across his ass took him by surprise, and he was glad he had a pillow to shout into. It was only around the fifth stroke that he became aware he was counting. It wasn’t sore, not specifically, but he felt dirty and wicked and good all at once, so he keened and keened out the numbers. His toes pointed, his tail danced in the air and he could feel his hardened nipples drag against the blanket beneath him as he purred through his punishment.

 

“Do you know what dirty kitties get?” his alpha mouthed into his ear, body surrounding his as his hand stilled for a moment to play with him, fingers knuckle-deep and working him furiously. “They don’t get made love to, they get _fucked_.” He pulled his fingers out, fit action to word, and plunged his fat cock into Jihoon just as he was, without apology for the stretch.

 

Jihoon shouted at the unbearable stinging pleasure, not quite sure what made pain different from pleasure anymore, but he trusted his alpha, trusted him even as he rode him hard and without surcease. He became hard again, spilled again, and finally had to slump, so far gone into the fuzzy pleasure inside his head that he didn’t feel it when Soonyoung scraped him up into his arms to sit up and start fucking him from below.

 

He barely managed to open his eyes when his alpha pinched at one of his nipples, tugging at the shimmery chain.

 

“That’s it,” Soonyoung whispered. “Come back to me, baby. Look in the dresser mirror, see what you look like.”

 

Panting for breath, Jihoon looked and couldn’t look away. He saw a small body, flushed pink and cream, resting back against Soonyoung’s tanner form. His expression was screwed up with need, and the chains he had on shimmied and shook every time his alpha rutted into him. He saw the figure lift his legs as his alpha coaxed him to, spread them as wide open as he could, until he saw the thick, gleaming cock spearing him open again and again. The figure’s body looked too tiny to take it, and for a moment he was proud he could manage.

 

He watched as his smaller cock pulsed desperately against his stomach, erupting into thin watery streamers that coated his chest.

 

 _B…beautiful_ , he thought, watching Soonyoung get himself off with his tiny body, and breathed out on a deep, hungry moan as he jammed him down, held him firmly by the hips to start shooting inside him. He watched himself raise his hands to pet at his belly, rejoicing in the surges of heat deep inside him, and he made the conscious decision to let go, to start accepting himself for what he was. Not the alpha he had always wanted to be, not the omega he turned into. Not the hurt little creature of the past with ice in his heart. Himself, Lee Jihoon, savage and clever and musical and lovely and worthy of love.

 

It was long minutes later before he could breathe clearly, minutes Soonyoung took to tilt him sideways onto the bed, to hug him with arms and legs and all his love. “Do you see now?” he whispered, hips still sluggishly working. “Do you see what I see?”

 

“I think so,” Jihoon whispered, adrift and amazed. “I think so.”

 

That earned him a hug and a delighted chuckle.

 

Later, as their bodies had calmed down and Soonyoung had pulled a thin blanket over them, he laughed shakily and reached up to scrub at his face. “That was intense,” he muttered, curling back into his mate. “And very odd. I’m glad I tried it, but it’s not for me, not regularly. Why is everything buzzing so much?”

 

Soonyoung held him tightly. “I don’t really know,” he said after a moment. “But you know how sometimes you sleep wrong and your neck is fucked up, and you suffer the whole day? And then something happens, and it cracks, and you turn all light-headed because suddenly the pain’s gone, and you’re drifting? Perhaps it was like that, love. You had to get rid of that pain in your mind or something.”

 

Jihoon flipped over to his back to stare up at the ceiling, wiggling sideways until Soonyoung draped over his side. “Maybe it’s like that,” he admitted at length. “It was bad, you know? I wanted to be an alpha growing up, and everyone expected it. I looked forward to it so much, so when I presented and it was as an omega, it felt as if my body betrayed me somehow. My friends looked at me differently, my family did too, and I did it most of all.”

 

“Until your heart was tight and defensive and strained,” Soonyoung murmured as he reached to unclip the chain and sit up. He disappeared into the bathroom for a moment, returning with a warm washcloth and clean water, perching on the bed next to Jihoon to help him clean up. “But it’s like being angry with your body for being born male or female. It can’t help it, you can’t help it. It’s determined long before you’re even born.” Patting his skin dry, he went for lotion and a long t-shirt and a pair of comfortable boxers. “Sometimes I get angry because I can’t sing as well as you do,” he shared. “Or Seokmin-ah, or Seungkwan-ah.”

 

Jihoon picked up his head to stare at him. “What?” he asked, dumbfounded. “But you have a lovely voice.”

 

Soonyoung set to massaging him gently, working lotion into his skin, getting rid of the last of the waxy residue, before he helped him into the t-shirt and boxers. “I know I can sing. I’m passable. I’m just not great at it. When the three of you sing together, it makes my heart want to break. You should form a group.” He patted one svelte flank. “Come on, get up, I want to change the bed.”

 

Scrambling off, Jihoon helped him change out the soiled linens and pillows and plushies, considering the fact. It wasn’t until they were both clean and dressed comfortably, cuddling under clean linens, that he spoke. “Were you ever sad that you were born a tiger, or an alpha?”

 

“Me?” Soonyoung asked. “Well, sort of? It’s difficult at times. We have our own sets of instincts, and I had to struggle for so long before I learnt to make the tiger listen to me, not the other way around. I was so destructive as a kid. By the time I was ten I could already lift my mother and carry her around, and I felt constantly bombarded by my senses. I wanted to fight all the time. I _did_ fight most of the time, until I learnt to have a little control. Dance helped with that, and martial arts. But even now I have to struggle not to kick a door in when some asshole leers at you, or when I’m in a bad mood.”

 

Jihoon blinked. “You did martial arts?”

 

“Taekwondo,” Soonyoung murmured as he closed his eyes and snuggled a little closer. “I’ll show you sometime. Let’s sleep, okay?”

 

Biting his lip, Jihoon nodded and closed his eyes, falling asleep almost immediately.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. I can't understand how this story got 100+ kudos. I was originally not even going to post it, it was a sort of a gift idea for someone on Twitter. To see it getting so many reads, so many bookmarks and kudos and nice comments, completely blows my mind. I really thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. Each and every one of you contributed to one of the most relaxed, best few weeks of my life. 
>   2. So this is an odd chapter, perhaps because I'm still crying from sheer happiness from the love people've showed me. Despite what Jihoon said about wanting to be extremely submissive, that doesn't happen, because that's not what he needs? I hope it makes sense. He needed to stop hating a very fundamental part of himself, by being confronted with it and being shown that it's not so bad. 
>   3. Please only try this kind of thing with someone you're really comfortable with. 
>   4. This more or less completes the healing section that I had originally wanted to write about, so I'd like to know if people want to see the story continue, perhaps start touching on other characters, showing their POVs? Soonhoon will always be the central part of the story and I can throw them into many, many smutty situations, but I just wanted to know. 
> 



	13. Chapter 13

Seungkwan sighed softly and eyed the book in front of him. Vocal theory was no joke, but his mind didn’t want to stick with it today, and he tuned it out in favour of Chan at his side. “How long will Soonyoung-hyung be away for?” he asked curiously. “The floor with Jihoon-hyung’s studio is already a no-go zone, practically. I tried to turf him out earlier, but he threw a narwhal plushie at me. I thought his tail would lash itself off his backside.”

 

Chan sighed dolefully, leaning forward onto the table in a slouch Seungkwan envied. “Two more weeks, the conference is over next week but then he’s leaving directly from there to the dance camp. It’s a repeat of the one they had in February, so the department didn’t want to shell out for Jihoon-hyung to go again. It’s gonna get worse before it gets better. As it was, he nearly danced our legs off standing in for Soonyoung-hyung.”

 

“There’s a party tonight,” Hansol said out of the blue. “At Seungcheol-hyung’s place. He wants to know if you two are coming. We’re all leaving directly after gym.”

 

“Yes!” Chan said, back straightening. “Who knows, maybe one of his million girlfriends will take pity on me.”

 

“I…” Seungkwan hesitated. “Um, perhaps I should talk to Jihoon-hyung first… perhaps we’ll have practice late?”

 

“He’ll go,” Chan announced. “Unless you want to sit there and third-wheel their nightly Skype session.”

 

Seungkwan blanched at that thought. Gods, he appreciated and loved and admired the couple very much, but if there was one thing he didn’t want to do, it’s know what they got up to in private, especially after that time he had nearly walked in on them in the studio. “I’ll be there,” he hastened. “Is Seokmin-hyung welcome too?”

 

Hansol lifted his head to gift him with a tiny smile and nod. Seungkwan thanked his lucky stars they were in the cafeteria, where the air didn’t carry any trace of his body’s reaction to it.

 

* * *

 

Seungcheol’s place turned out to be a three-level apartment in Gangnam, filled with a medley of scents that teased, and Seungkwan spent a moment trying to decipher them as Seokmin-hyung made his way into the apartment with no fear whatsoever. Slowly, hesitantly, he scooted inwards, and was practically pounced on by Seungcheol-hyung, who dragged him all the way into the party.

 

“Kwannie,” he said happily, locking his arms around him in a back-hug filled with gentle ferocity. “Glad you could come. Is Woozi still sulking in his sound-cave?”

 

Seungkwan smiled over his shoulder. “Yes, hyung,” he said. He could already hear Seokmin-hyung’s laughter twine around Chan’s as they listened to a joke from Mingyu-hyung. “But he has a fast internet connection and I dropped off some chicken and he promised me he’d eat.”

 

“Good boy,” the alpha murmured, letting him go only to pat him on the head. It was a lovely gesture, exactly what a wolf hybrid would do for one of his own pack when pleased, but all it did was mess up the way Jeonghan-hyung had hung the beret on the back of his head. Wonwoo-ah and Hansol-ah are still upstairs, if you want to go and say hi, and we’re having noraebang tonight so I hope you practiced your rapping?”

 

Seungkwan’s grin turned a bit more genuine. “I’ll rap like fire, hyung!” he promised, and received a fist-bump before they split up, Seungcheol-hyung to go and corner the other new guests, and Seungkwan to trot up the stairs.

 

He counted rooms as he went, comparing them to the map in his mind, and cautiously knocked on Wonwoo-hyung’s door, earning a grunt and a quiet hello before he moved on. Hansol’s door was slightly ajar, lo-fi spilling into the corridor from it – one of the English artists he loved so much, it sounded like. “Hansolie?” he asked, poking his head into the quiet room. It smelled so damn _good_. “Are you…”

 

“Right behind you,” Hansol answered.

 

Seungkwan turned and jerked back, nearly swallowing his tongue as he choked on air.

 

Hansol was wet from the shower, with a towel around his hips and one being used to dry his hair, and holy hell, it was like some kind of visual smorgasbord. Lightly tan skin, muscles moving cleanly and easily, water running gently down the planes of his chest and into the towel, all combined with a small, quirky smile and forthright light brown eyes.

 

Seungkwan had never really experienced a gay panic, not the way Jeonghan-hyung had described it, but he was pretty damn sure it would feel like this. He could feel his throat dry and his heart beat, felt his cheeks prickle as non-existent whiskers wanted to tremble, and inhaled abruptly, light fading a little as his pupils opened too wide. His mouth trembled open just a little. The scent of soap and shampoo and water mixed with Hansol’s natural scent from behind, trapping him in a maze that smelled like sunshine hot on dune sand, the hint of ocean salt, all laid over something muskier, deeper, _warmer_.

 

 _I’m having a gay panic, I’m having a fucking gay panic,_ his mind chanted, limbs so sluggish that they didn’t want to move. _Gods, Nonie is going to hate it, please please please let him not smell this, please let that stupid scent-blocking soap have worked…_

 

He watched as Hansol’s nose flared just slightly, saw him lean in a little, until their cheeks just-just weren’t touching and his heart wanted to jump out of his chest at their closeness.

 

Hansol’s brows knit as he looked at the shorter, scared guy in front of him. Even leant in like he was, he couldn’t smell anything, had no cues other than what his eyes and ears could detect. Seungkwan smelled ever so slightly of flowers; not mass-produced hothouse flowers, but something slightly dustier like a sun-warmed meadow filled with flowers. Not Seungkwan’s natural briskly sweet smell, not the gradations of emotion that turned him from chill mountain air to the tartness of a lemon, _nothing._ Just a fading reminder of Seungcheol-hyung, likely from a hug of some sort. Briefly he considered punching the other alpha.

 

“Seungkwan?” he mumbled. He reached for one of his hands very gently to avoid spooking him if nothing else, lifting it so that he could smell at the slim, beautiful wrist where the blood flowed shallow. Like that, close enough that his lips nearly touched the flesh, he could finally smell something. Chemical, but through it the scent of honey-soaked late-season berries, the kind he could imagine gushing in his mouth, filling it with sweet and tart. Beneath his hands, the cat started shivering just a little, and he felt his pulse pick up.

 

Seungkwan didn’t know what to do or whether he even wanted to get out of the situation. His body was doing weird things again; his skin felt sensitive and just a little too tight. With a squeak, he yanked his hand away and fled down the corridor then down the stairs, until he reached what looked like a tiny laundry room and slammed the door shut on that. It smelled like detergent and sweaty clothes, and he nearly mewled with relief as he managed to dig his phone out of his pocket with trembling fingers.

 

One ring, then two, before Jihoon-hyung’s lazy drawl answered. “I’m eating, and I had some water, kid, stop checking up on me, sheesh.” Irritated, but with fondness underneath.

 

“Hyung?” he squeaked. “Something’s happening. I, um, I’m at that party I told you about? Anyway, um, something happened and Hansol nearly scented me, and I think I’m having a breakdown.”

 

Jihoon-hyung sighed over the phone. “Deep breaths,” he said encouragingly. “You’ve seen cute hot guys before, right? How bad did it get?”

 

Seungkwan bit his lip. “Kind of like a wave slapped me in the face,” he said. “Like all I wanted to do was climb into his skin.”

 

There was a brief moment of silence. “Kwannie,” his hyung murmured, just a little more gently. “Forgive me for having to ask this, but at that appointment a month ago you said you were a virgin still, but you’ve masturbated before, right? You know that much of your body? At least in the heat dorm?”

 

Seungkwan sank down on the floor in a corner of the room. “No,” he admitted quietly. “I just slept through things there. I mean, before at my house, but not for some time. Not since I came here. It’s only since you and hyung that I’ve even seen what a really healthy same-sex relationship should look like, let alone a sexual one. I… sometimes I hate looking down at myself still when I get out of the shower. It’s just that it was worse today.”

 

His hyung clicked his tongue irritably. “Kid, you’re at least a handful of centimeters taller than me, and you barely weigh more – you’re too thin, if anything. Soonie says he’s a good kid, but I’ve got your back, okay? You remember what I promised you about how to curl your hand in a fist?”

 

Magically, that made Seungkwan’s irrational fear dial down, until he gurgled with laughter. “Hyung, I don’t want to punch him!”

 

“No?” Jihoon-hyung teased. “Sure about that?”

 

“No. I… I really like him, and he probably hates me now, I ran away that fast. He…” Seungkwan paused as someone knocked on the door, and he went to cautiously ease it open, seeing Seungcheol-hyung on the other side. At the senior’s wiggles, he handed his phone over dutifully.

 

“Woozi-ya?” Seungcheol said briskly. “Did he tell you about the soap? I missed it earlier, because I smelled him on Channie and Seokmin-ah, but I can smell it now… or rather not smell it. Hansol-ah says it smells like the stuff his dad used in the military.”

 

Seungkwan practically heard the shout at that, and saw Seungcheol-hyung gingerly hand the phone back to him before pulling the washroom door shut.

 

“You could smell him more because you couldn’t smell yourself, silly cat,” Jihoon-hyung scolded metedly. “Even though you don’t think you smell yourself, it’s always there. Your vomorenasal organs still provide input. Think of it like a protective cloud, Seungkwan-ah. If it’s suddenly not there, your brain flails around for anything, and you’re fresh off your first heat, it’s even worse with all the hormonal changes your body is still trying to understand. That kind of stuff is only supposed to be used in situations where you have to live in close quarters for months on end. I’ll… try and explain better tomorrow, okay? For now just getting it off your skin is best.”

 

“Okay,” Seungkwan whispered. “Sorry, hyung, I saw it in the pharmacy and thought… should I go home?”

 

“No,” Jihoon-hyung said with a long sigh. “Just go and take a shower, I’m sure Cheol-hyung won’t mind.”

 

Seungkwan muttered something that might have been a goodbye, feeling thoroughly chastised as he crept out of the room. Still, when he entered the party again Seungcheol-hyung had somehow performed miracles, because no-one spoke to him about it, and there was a hoodie waiting for him, clean and fluffy. Hansol smiled at him as he went past him to shower, and when he returned swimming in the hoodie, barely able to see his fingertips past the sleeves, the other had made him a little impromptu nest on the couch, and Minghao-hyung came to sit by him for one of their ongoing Chinese lessons.

 

Much later, after games and the first of the videos, he peeked up from the folds of blanket around him as Hansol sat down next to him with a plate overflowing with food, skewed towards his favourites.

 

“I’m sorry,” Seungkwan whispered. “About earlier.”

 

Hansol shook his head and picked up a bit of sizzling meat with his chopsticks, blowing on it gently before holding it to his lips. “It wasn’t malicious. I made the same mistake once, but I was younger, and I thought I’d be cool like my dad. Not only did I get myself, but I couldn’t sit down for ages afterwards, my mom was that angry. Careful, don’t burn your tongue.”

 

Seungkwan gingerly nipped at the piece of meat, chewing it thoughtfully. A small mouthful of rice came next, then some kimchi. It continued for minutes, until he felt something shudder and relax in his spine and leant sideways into Hansol’s shoulder. They sat like that, one feeding the other, until Seungkwan felt full and spoiled by all the attention. His eyes drooped a little, not sleepily, but happily. The others were already setting up the noraebang equipment, but he felt as if he wanted to linger a little where he was.

 

“Do you… do you want to go and get coffee after theory class tomorrow?” Hansol asked quietly. “I mean, just the two of us.”

 

Deep inside Seungkwan’s mind, a pinprick of happiness burst into being. “I’d love to,” he said, straightening a little to smile. “I’d really love to.”

 

“Kwannie!” Seokmin-hyung called. “Get up you lazy cat, I want to murder your undeserved Wonder Girls reign!”

 

“Go on,” Hansol urged before he could ask. “Like anyone could destroy you at Wonder Girls.”

 

Laughing, suddenly happy again, Seungkwan went… and yes, destroyed his hyung at Wonder Girls.

 

* * *

 

“Hyung?” Hansol asked as he entered the sacred domain, Lee Jihoon’s studio. It was on the cusp of the second week, only a few days before Soonyoung-hyung would return, and the halls had been devoid of activity around this particular studio. Not that he _blamed_ them per se; Jihoon-hyung was sitting on his swivel-chair kicking his legs idly, and apart from the regular things he’d expect from a recording studio, there was also a row of plushies meticulously arranged, with a tiger one that had pride-of-place in Jihoon-hyung’s arms. That, together with the ferocious scowl on Jihoon’s face, didn’t make him feel in the least safe.

 

Not that the huge, funny-shaped cucumber and chef’s knife on the table in front of the sofa made the situation any better. If he squinted at it, it looked particularly dick-shaped.

 

“Hyung?” he said. “You wanted to speak to me?”

 

Jihoon nodded. “Sit down, kid,” he said, pulling his legs up to tuck them underneath himself, arms still loosely around the large tiger plushie. “Seungkwan-ah tells me you guys have been out for a couple of dates now?”

 

The only place to sit was on the sofa, in front of the cucumber. Hansol began to feel just a little fear. “Yes, hyung. A couple of coffee dates. I did speak to Soonyoung-hyung before he left, he said it was okay?”

 

“It is okay,” Jihoon reassured him. “So far Seungkwan-ah’s very happy.” He sat the tiger aside and leant a little forward. “As long as he’s happy, I’m happy. If he’s ever not happy because of you…” Leaning a little more, he took the chef’s knife and chopped the cucumber’s head off, arching his eyebrows.

 

Hansol flinched at that, wanting to cross his legs out of sympathy for the poor cucumber. “I get the idea,” he said hoarsely as the most frightening person he had ever met chopped the cucumber up with both a lack of skill and great enthusiasm. “But I’d still…” Chop, chop, chop. “I’d still like to date and court him!” he called out above the noise. How did Soonyoung-hyung deal with all this on a daily basis?

 

Jihoon sat back, knife clattering on the class table. “Good,” he said. “Now get out of here.”

 

Hansol was more than happy to flee the scene.

 

* * *

 

That night, ensconced in Seungkwan’s dorm room after a study session, Hansol related the story of the cucumber, and got a giggly cat as a result. He loved the sound of it, especially in the tiny room, where it filled it to the ceiling. Seungkwan looked so pretty like that, all pink-cheeked and laughing at the cucumber’s misfortune, that he leant in on a whim and kissed him gently on the cheek. The skin was petal-smooth underneath his lips. Murmuring at the feel of it, he drifted another kiss a little higher, over one pronounced cheekbone that coloured gently underneath it. He admired that too as he sat back. “You’re pretty like that,” he murmured. “Laughing. You should always laugh, okay?”

 

“Nonie,” Seungkwan murmured.

 

He had been doing that more and more often, the rapper had noticed, giving it a honeyed tone. It made the non-existent fur on his neck smooth down, made his days feel just a little less awful sometimes. Looking away, he concentrated on their mathematics texts. Why it was part of a Performing Arts course he didn’t know. “I spoke to Soonyoung-hyung as well,” he muttered. “I mean, I don’t know your parents but I know the hyungdeul are pretty protective of you. About, um, continuing to date, and things.”

 

“Wow,” Seungkwan teased him. “That’s pretty formal. But then I bet the cucumber was kind of terrifying. You asked them if it was okay for us to date or something? Shouldn’t you be asking me rather?”

 

Hansol sighed and nodded, looking sideways. “I should,” he admitted with a skewed smile. “But I’m more afraid of your rejection than I am of Jihoon-hyung and his cucumber. Besides, it’s not like I’m not mixed-race, your prospects can be so much better.”

 

Seungkwan pouted, shifting to straddle Hansol’s lap. “That's nonsense. Kiss me again,” he demanded. “Properly. And then I’ll tell you.”

 

Hansol reached for him, setting his large hands on the boy’s surprisingly slim waist before pulling him closer. Like this, with his palms close to the best butt he had ever seen and Seungkwan almost on his lap, he was nervous enough to swallow as he leant closer. He touched his cheek first with his lips, just a feathery brush, before he leant sideways enough to kiss the pout off his lips. No tongue, but he could taste tea on the full lower lip he imprisoned between his teeth, tugging and nibbling until it was even more pouty and swollen before he let it pop free.

 

The boy on his lap smelled of candy-floss and star anise as he leant in to scent him, trailing little pecking kisses over the thunder of his pulse, before he scented him properly, deeply, daring for the first time to do it as a lover might, instead of a casual acquaintance. His skin was so tender too, making Hansol’s teeth itch with the desire to bite down. His arms tightened, slipped around the slightly-too-thin waist in a rush, and he pulled him up higher onto his lap before he went in for another kiss.

 

Seungkwan’s head was spinning. It felt as if he could feel Hansol everywhere around him, from the strong arms around his waist to the way his neck buzzed, to the heated lips on his, pressing in so very gently. He gasped, back arching, at another nip to his lower lip, and suddenly he could taste Hansol, felt his tongue in his mouth, fervent and insistent and tasting of the pocky he had shared with him. On and on, until he broke free with a shuddering, mewling gasp for air, eyes screwed up tightly.

 

“Like that?” Hansol whispered against his lips, scattering delicate little kisses against the pouting line of it.

 

“Mmm,” he managed to get out, trying not to grind down on his lap like a needy cat. He had to swallow to speak. “Yes.”

 

“Yes?” Hansol confirmed. “More?”

 

Seungkwan managed to straighten and nodded. “More please,” he muttered, and got precisely what he asked for. He wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Hansol stopped again, but when he felt one hand tangle in his hair to gently persuade his head back his body slumped, thighs splayed open wide, and moaned as he felt his rapper’s lips on his throat. They nuzzled there, making the skin sing from awareness, until it was soothed by gentle licks before the cycle repeated over and over again. Beneath him, pressed into the seam of his jeans, he could feel Hansol hardening as well, and the thought of grinding against him like this made his mind implode, made his body feel as if it was heating up.

 

Hansol pulled back to look at the boy on his lap, admiring the red patches on his cheeks, the way his neck glistened in the overhead light as he tilted it back submissively. His instincts were howling at him, full of savage glee at the slight hint of arousal he could smell. He kept his hands on his waist, aware that if he moved them it would be over. As it was, his fingers were itching to slip downwards, to pet and play with his luscious ass. “Kwan,” he murmured, fingers pinching in a little bit. “Kwannie, come on. I need to ask you something, ok?”

 

Seungkwan didn’t want to come to, but he did, aware that his pout was fully there. “Nonie,” he purred softly. “Nonie, why did you stop?”

 

Hansol bit the inside of his cheek. “Because I’ve barely done this kind of thing before,” he admitted. “And because I wanted to ask you outright if you’d be my boyfriend. Please.”

 

It didn’t feel as if he could be happier, Seungkwan decided. “Even with the cucumber?”

 

“Even with that,” Hansol said formally.

 

“Then yes,” Seungkwan whispered. “I’d love to be your boyfriend.”

 

* * *

 

“Stop with the fucking smiling,” Jihoon-hyung groused as he handed out the scores he wanted Seungkwan to start singing for a group project. “It’s been a fucking week and all I see is teeth.”

 

Seungkwan blessed him with an especially bright smile and went to hug his hyung, getting an arm in the ribs for his trouble. “You’re so salty, hyung, just because my boyfriend is here and you’re horny and sulky because Soonyoung-hyung is only expected back tomorrow.”

 

Jihoon-hyung’s face scrunched and he pushed him aside with a hand against the side of his head. “Stop it,” he snarled. “Stop mentioning that damn deserter’s name. Just get in the fucking booth and sing your song, okay? If you get a single note wrong, I’ll make you sing until your vocal chords bleed, and you can forget about your date tonight!”

 

Seungkwan would have been worried if the tiger plushie wasn’t still in pride of place on Jihoon-hyung’s lap. “Hyung, you’re so meeeaaaaan,” he teased, trying for another hug.

 

“You’ll see mean soon if you don’t get into that booth, Boo Seungkwan!” Jihoon-hyung yelled, too busy hitting him with the paper score to look as the door opened.

 

 _Bingo_ , Seungkwan thought happily. _Right on time._

 

“Is that my Jihoonie I see?” Soonyoung-hyung said happily from the doorway as he dropped his duffel. “Beating up on a dongsaeng? Man, I went to all that trouble to get home early, and now he’s too busy for me because he’s acting all cute and violent? Hey, Seungkwan-ah.”

 

Seungkwan’s ears practically rang with the “Soonie!” that emerged from Jihoon-hyung as he turned to confirm what his ears and nose were telling him. “Soonie, you’re here!” His hyung dropped the papers, dropped the tiger plushie and practically leapt at his mate, clearing the table in between on one long bound.

 

 _That’s what I want one day,_ Seungkwan thought, heart aching, as Soonyoung-hyung caught Jihoon-hyung and swung him around happily before peppering his small face with kisses. _Perhaps one day with Hansol? Maybe?_ Shaking his head, he gave the two of them a wide berth, pulling the doors shut behind him. The best he could do for them now as provide privacy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. So mainly a Verkwan POV chapter, with little hints of Soonhoon in the back. 
>   2. Let us pray for the fate of the cucumber. 
> 



	14. Chapter 14

“You’re not allowed to leave again,” Jihoon said sulkily as Soonyoung sank down with him on the couch. “It was horrible around here, no one knew how to function. That dance class I had to take for you was tragic, everyone kept crying.” He wrinkled his nose at the scent of travel on Soonyoung, a melange of other people and foreign places. “I mean, not that I missed you that much, but clearly you need to teach your students how not to be so dependent on your smirky face.”

 

Soonyoung fought not to laugh. His mate’s words might have been harsh, with no welcome attached to it, but he had long since learnt Jihoonie spoke through his gestures: the animation as he waved his hands about and clapped them, the scowl when he was secretly impressed but didn’t want to aid and abet an ego. Most of all, the way he curled up on his lap as if he owned the entire stretch of leg, even though there was a sizeable portion of the sofa still open for him to sit. Not that he minded. The leg belonged to his mate along with everything else. “That breaks my heart, Jihoonie, not even a single word of welcome. And are you sure they weren’t crying because you drove them too hard?”

 

“Nonsense,” Jihoon scoffed as he rested back against the arm that moved obligingly to become his backrest. “If they can still walk around and moan at the end of the class, clearly they weren’t trying hard enough.” His nose scrunched up. “I _didn’t_ , okay? I was quite happy here and I actually got some work done. I finished the three songs I started on and began two… others…” His mind kicked in and he snapped his mouth shut.

 

Soonyoung’s mouth thinned. “Did you sleep here again? More than a day?” he asked, clearly unhappy. “And we had to work so hard to get you back on a healthy sleep schedule, baby. I wanted to go and thank your kids for looking after you, but clearly they weren’t looking after you at all.”

 

Jihoon turned his head away, feeling faintly guilty. “Don’t blame them,” he finally muttered. “Seungkwan-ah and Hansol-ah started going out, and I think Seokmin-ah is having separation anxiety so he’s hanging around with your Channie a lot.” His shoulder slumped. “I couldn’t sleep at home,” he admitted quietly. “It’s stupid, isn’t it? I got along fine for years, but just a few months later you’re gone for two weeks and everything felt empty. At least here I could nap a little. At home it was just too much, having your smell and not you.” He paused. “I did miss you.”

 

“I missed you too, kitten,” Soonyoung said as he rested one hand on his mate’s knee, slowly stroking his calf. “But Daejeon tired me out and I need a shower because I stink…”

 

“You do,” Jihoon interrupted tartly. “You smell like you’ve been rolling around in some travelling hash den.”

 

“…and I need a nap too,” Soonyoung finished patiently. “So hold on.” Tightening his arms, he stood with Jihoon, swinging him over to his back before he handed him his travel bag. “There, hold that. Be careful, it has presents in it.”

 

Jihoon wiggled until he was comfortable, grunting at the weight of the bag. “Do you give people bricks as presents these days?” he asked as they left the studio. “I… oh, Professor Lee? Did you want to see me?” The man was starting at them with a starstruck expression.

 

“No!” he called out. “No no, I see your mate is back, of course you must want to catch up immediately, take the rest of the day off my boy, take two, we can talk on Wednesday!” The words rushed from his mouth as he backed away, and a quiet ‘Thank fuck’ floated as he hastened away.

 

“Jihoonie,” Soonyoung asked doubtfully. “Exactly how cranky were you?”

 

Jihoon curled the back into his arms and tightened his legs around his mate’s waist. “Less talking, more walking,” he advised. “Mush!”

 

==========================================

 

When they arrived at the apartment Soonyoung wanted to wrinkle his nose at the stale smell of the air inside, trailing in with Jihoon still on his back. He had refused to let go; Jihoon had only tried to push him away twice, which was practically an admission as far as he was concerned. He dipped to enter the doorway, kicked it shut and turned to let his mate off. “Shower,” he panted. “I need a shower.”

 

Jihoon paused his poke into the bag and scrunched his nose expressively again. “Yes, you definitely do.”

 

Soonyoung didn’t offer or ask. Instead, counting his blessings at being home, he trailed through the lounge into their bedroom, tugging off his shirt as he went. That and the rest of his clothes landed in the laundry basket – his mate had house-trained him on that pretty damn quickly – and he leant in to start the shower, waiting until it was at least blood-warm before he hopped in. As he did, he heard the bathroom door open wider. His ears flicked as he listened to Jihoon putter around for a few moments before the sound of clothes came and his mate joined him.

 

“Give over,” Jihoon muttered, taking the washcloth from Soonyoung to start scrubbing slowly at his back. With all his growth over the past few months he still felt shy about expressing his emotions, still preferred a calm demeanour most of the time. It was only in moments like these, where he sudsed up his mate’s back, that he felt he could answer Soonyoung’s boundless love easily. Not that it was a pain to wash him, though they had to orbit carefully ‘round and ‘round to get every last bit.

 

Squeaky-clean, Soonyoung sat on the chair out of his mate’s way as he scrubbed himself down, quick and definitely harsher than he would have, but his patience paid off as Jihoon lay claim to his lap again, this time straddling it so that he could slowly, sweetly scent him. It felt like an affirmation of their love by now, especially when the omega relaxed in slow increments. He helped where he could, slowly dragging his fingers up and down his kitten’s spine, working gently at his shoulders, soaping his tail a second time so that he could pretend it was about being clean and not just outright petting. It lay limply in his hand for a moment, trusting, before it flicked away to curl around Jihoon’s waist and drape on his lap.

 

“I missed you, baby,” he murmured into one shell ear, fingertips relearning the texture of the smooth, fine-grained skin. “Daejeon wasn’t so much fun either. The conference was boring, though the dancing was a little fun. I’ll show you tomorrow?” Skimming his fingers down, he gently brushed over the pert ass before settling his hands on soft thighs, rubbing there a few seconds. He inclined his head a bit, guiding Jihoon straighter so that he could gently nip at his collarbones, the beginning of his throat.

 

Jihoon laughed as he tilted his head back into the warm water. “I can feel how much you missed me,” he teased, hands diving between them to gently coax Soonyoung’s cock up straight and heavy against his stomach. “I hope my favourite part of you wasn’t too lonely.”

 

Soonyoung grinned like a loon. “My heart _was_ very lonely, thank you for asking.” Encouraged, he hitched his omega a little higher on his lap and let him lean in again, large hands settling on his pretty rear. “Are you sure you didn’t miss me even a little?” he teased, pinching one cheek gently. “And to think that I got you gifts.” Sneakily, he tapped one fingertip against the tiny hidden hole.

 

“Mhmrr,” Jihoon muttered, lifting his head to grin like a cat that was about to get the cream. “Certain parts of me might have missed you. Did you get them presents too?”

 

“Almost as many as I got you,” Soonyoung promised. “I’m not sure which you’d appreciate more, the Dead Gakkas band shirt or proper beads. I can tell you the owner of the sex shop was impressed though, I showed him your picture and he refused to believe anyone that small could handle them.”

 

Jihoon snorted. “Bullshit,” he bragged. “I take _you_ , don’t I?” He clambered off Soonyoung’s lap. “You got me a Dead Gakkas band shirt?” he asked happily.

 

“Two,” Soonyoung confirmed, happy he had guessed right. “One long-sleeved, one short, both oversized so you can sleep in them if you want, or just carry around the heads of your foes after you rip them off.” He stood, shutting off the water and reaching for a towel. “You want to see them?”

 

“No,” Jihoon said as he wandered buck-naked back to the room. “Geez, Soonie. Did you think I was going to let you get in a nap first before I remind you what’s waiting at home every time you leave? I want to see the other gift, then perhaps the t-shirts later on.” He looked back over his shoulder to grin. “Come on, alpha. We’re wasting bedtime.”

 

 _Gods,_ Soonyoung thought as he wandered after, towelling himself hastily dry. _I must have been a fucking saint in my previous life._

 

=======================================================

 

One week later after Soonyoung-hyung’s return, and Seungkwan felt as if his head would burst. He had always believed that he was a sterile cross as his sisters had been (though they had emerged betas from the change), and if he didn’t get the hang of this new pheromone thing he was going to quit. Honestly, if he didn’t figure it out soon he really was going to take Jihoon-hyung up on those punching lessons, because this was just getting to be way too much. He had already endured as many little touches and innocent ‘hugs’ today as he wanted to, and feeling a stranger pet his backside as they were standing in a queue was just way too much.

 

Oh, he could have gone to the shops earlier when Channie and Seokmin went, but he hadn’t wanted to rush after class, feeling tired. Now, on the way to his dorm, he understood why Jihoon-hyung sometimes stomped like he was crushing vanquished foes underneath his pet pair of slides.

 

He stomped into his dorm room and made a very un-Boo snarl of irritation when he saw his roommate was gone again, with a note up on the tap next to a passive-aggressive half a sink of dishes. Gnawing on his lower lip, he crumpled up the note and tossed it on his roommate’s bed before he turned to go and get fresh clothes. He stunk of other people and wandering hands.

 

A knock at the door made him groan, and he flung it open with great flair and irritation only to falter as he saw his boyfriend’s face on the other side of it. “Nonie?” he faltered. “I thought you had that game tonight.”

 

“No?” Hansol said. “That’s tomorrow night, Boo, tonight is movie night, remember?”

 

_Well, fuck._

 

He sighed tiredly and stood aside. “Sorry. It’s just been a day.”

 

The younger had barely stepped into the room before he paused, leaning into Seungkwan to sniff. His nose wrinkled; Seungkwan had never been so glad in his life that he had gotten one of the decent ones when he merely stepped back and didn’t immediately crowd him.

 

“We can cancel it,” Hansol offered. “If you had a hard day, it’s no stress? There isn’t really anything good out in any case, so it’s okay if you want to just stay in and cuddle a little too. “Do you, um, I can offer a massage maybe?”

 

Seungkwan practically cried at the sweetness. “You wouldn’t mind? I really, really want a shower.”

 

“Absolutely. Go and take one, and I’ll make you some tea.”

 

Seungkwan wanted to kiss him, but he still stank, so he nodded, collected sleep gear and nipped into the dorm room’s tiny bathroom. Ten minutes later, in his oldest set of comfort pyjamas, he dried his hair as well as he could and wandered back out, only to bite his lip. Not only had Hansol rinsed out the few dishes, but he had made him tea and put away his groceries. “Thank you,” he muttered as he wandered closer to back-hug him, jaw on his one shoulder as he watched him write Seungkwan’s name on the carton of milk.

 

Hansol smiled at him. “No problem? And thank…” he broke off with a swallow, pulling away to stare at Seungkwan. He had only seen him in long pants and neat shirts before, perhaps the occasional pair of jeans. Now, dressed in an old shirt and a pair of black, soft sleep shorts, he  wasn’t sure he was comfortable with how inviting he smelled, or how much leg he could see, or the way the shorts just-just covered his butt, clinging to them. _Danger,_ his mind chanted weakly before it got firmly overruled by his instincts. “Wow, you look great.”

 

Looking down doubtfully at himself, Seungkwan tried to see what Hansol saw. Old but comfy sleeping gear, legs, bare feet and toes. At least his legs were still smooth. “Thanks?” he muttered, taking the tea to sip at it. “Do you want to watch movies on my laptop? We could cuddle a little?” he added hopefully.

 

 _Yes,_ Hansol’s instincts insisted firmly. _Cuddles. Now. Immediately._

 

“How about a compromise?” he asked instead. “You can start watching a movie and I’ll give you a massage, and then we can see about cuddles?”

 

“Let’s watch one of those English movies of yours!” Seungkwan said excitedly, leaning to kiss his boyfriend’s cheek before he practically waltzed to his bed to set up one of the foreign superhero movies Jihoon-hyung had raved about. Setting his tea aside – it really was too hot still – he flopped down on his belly, fought not to kick his feet in the air and waited for Hansol to join him. Suddenly the day didn’t seem so bad.

 

Hansol swallowed, paying little attention to the first Avengers movie as it started. Instead, he moved to gently hunker over Seungkwan’s back, locking his hands on the knotted slopes of his shoulders. He worked as gently as he could, pressing and leaning and rubbing to get the knots out, concentrating instead on how he could smell his scent rub off onto his cat’s shoulders from the massage, replacing the soft scent of laundered clothes and content omega with his wilder one.

 

Working down and down his back, he slowly felt Seungkwan’s body starting to relax, hearing the murmurs as he tried out snitches of the spoken English for himself. With most of the knots worked out of his back, he turned to massage down his smooth, sleek legs, until he was working at the tired arches of his feet. He nearly stilled when he heard the purring coming from him; it was the closest he had yet heard anyone come, and it made his heart squeeze just a little.

 

“Kwannie?” he asked, fingertips gliding up to rest his palm just above his knee’s fold. “Where else?”

 

“My legs are still sore,” Seungkwan’s drowsy voice came. “A little above my hamstrings.”

 

Hansol swallowed again, nodding like a fool, and slowly started working at the tired muscles. His hands shook as he tried to work them into a limp state without going up too far.

 

Seungkwan smiled, floating somewhere between feeling sleepy and feeling sensual. “Nonie,” he purred. “Nonie, I’m not going to slap you for touching my butt, you know.”

 

It was odd, Hansol thought half-hysterically. He was normally the calm one, but just the thought of looking at Seungkwan’s magnificent backside had him half-hard. He wasn’t sure how long it took him to move, but he did and gently reached to cup it between his hands. “I’m sorry,” he got out hoarsely before he began to knead at it, working into the firm muscles, feeling the slight sway and give underneath his palms.

 

Seconds later, as that purr came again, he lost the fight against his instincts and just went with the flow. Hiking the shirt up at the back, he slipped the shorts down a little, just enough so that he could kiss the dimples on each side of his spine. “Is this okay?” he murmured as he plucked at the band again, and smiled into his spine as Seungkwan murmured an affirmative. “Watch the movie, okay? Just enjoy.”

 

Feeling as he had won the lottery somehow, he helped Seungkwan lift to slides the shorts off, and gently caressed around one firm, naked cheek before his kisses drifted lower and lower. “People always look,” he complained into the firm flesh. “When you walk, even just when you stand. It drives me so mad sometimes.” His lips found the smooth line where butt became leg, and he drifted kisses there. “You’re too pretty. Handsome? Beautiful?”

 

Seungkwan’s face warmed as he tried to concentrate on the movie, but his body was acutely aware that his boyfriend was that close to him. “I’m not that pretty,” he tried, but was interrupted by teeth very, very gently nipping one lush curve. Deep inside his belly, a soft glow started, and he bit down on his lip.

 

Hansol could smell that sweet berry scent start again, deepening and enriching the longer he played with his boyfriend’s butt. Encouraged, his thumbs wandered twin lines down to Kwan’s knees to press them apart so that he could rest between them, scratching softly at the sensitive inner thigh skin. “You’re beautiful,” he insisted again, seeing goose-flesh form before his cat squirmed for him. “And it’s not just that, it’s the way you smell, like those small, sweet late-season berries you get, the ones where you bite them and sweetness explodes on your tongue.”

 

Seungkwan writhed slowly underneath the lash of those words, absurdly turned on. There was some kind of fight going on on the screen in front of him, but all his attention was behind him, where Hansol’s hands slowly spread him open for the first time, holding him like that to blow gently on the hole hidden there.

 

“Kwannie,” Hansol breathed, head spinning with the way the scent enriched, the sight of slight wetness glazing the secret skin like honey would glaze those berries. Encouraged, he leant down to taste him for the first time, shuddering and growling as the taste exploded on his tongue as it did in his fantasies. His hands firmed, pressing his cat down into the mattress so that he couldn’t squirm, and set to lazily lapping up the slick just a little inside the small pucker.

 

Seungkwan gasped, fought against Hansol’s hands, but couldn’t move, and somehow that made it all the better. He felt so ridiculously turned on, heat spreading and pulsing through his body. Dimly he realised he was hard, that the pressure meant his cock was rubbing into the sheets, but it was almost nothing against the feel of Hansol slowly tongue-fucking him open.

 

Encouraged – Seungkwan was as loud calling out in pleasure as he was when he sung – Hansol tested the give of the little hole with one fingertip. In theory he knew what to do, but the last time he had gone down on a girl she hadn’t shouted like this, or tried to squirm for more. The muscles fought him; Seungkwan was incredibly tight, but he gently kept at it until he could slip one thumb inside to hold Kwan a little open. It fluttered against his finger, slick spilling out, and he dove back in, eating him out in earnest.

 

It went on for long, crazy moments as Seungkwan tried to understand what was happening to him. He felt short of breath, trapped between wanting to run away and wanting to beg for more. It was only when he felt his cock start to twitch and tremble that he pulled away, abruptly overcome with the desire to be as close to Hansol as possible.

 

Feeling his cat tug and try to twitch away, Hansol pulled back with confusion only to get a lapful of boyfriend. He let him worm close, let him shudder and gasp against his throat, removing his finger to pet him calm first. “Kwannie?” he asked gently. “Kwannie, what’s wrong?”

 

“Nothing!” Seungkwan muttered, trying not to feel embarrassed that he was halfway naked and Hansol still fully clothed. “Just… um, it’s the first time for someone to do that. I’ve kind of never done that kind of thing before. I’m just a little overwhelmed. Sorry?”

 

Hansol’s mind reeled as he wrapped his arms around Seungkwan. It was an incredibly powerful thought. He at least had some experience, if only with a lot of sloppy kisses and the one girl that had allowed him to try and please her. Knowing that his boyfriend was less experienced made him feel like he was a million miles tall and absolutely petrified with fear at the same time. “Oh,” he murmured. “Do you want me to stop?”

 

“I don't know? Is it okay if I ask you to scent me again?” Seungkwan asked timidly. “Properly? After that we can maybe try again?”

 

Hansol pulled back to look at him, expression gentle. “You don’t _need_ to ask for that, I already want to roll around on you every moment I’m around,” he teased. “Honestly, Kwan. If I could walk around with you smelling like me I’d grin like a fool all the time.”

 

From the look on his boyfriend’s face, he said exactly the right thing, and he leant in to slowly soak Boo Seungkwan’s neck in his scent. Fooling around could wait, sex could wait, as long as he got to do this.

 

That night he slept over, spooning his boyfriend, and left his sweater as a promise as he snuck out just before dawn. Later that day, when he glimpsed how starry-eyed his boyfriend looked in his sweater, he couldn’t stop his smile for all the money in the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. I lost a long stretch of the smuttiest smut that smutted when I accidentally saved over my document. It'll take me a bit to recreate, so please stay tuned! 
>   2. Kwon Soonyoung is effortless to write. I can hear him in my head. Lee Jihoon is a crafty SOB that loves to see me struggle. 
>   3. The Dead Gakkas is a real band, but don't go searching for them unless you like scream metal. 
>   4. A little Verkwan to soothe the soul whilst I attempt to recreate 5k of smut. 
> 



	15. Chapter 15

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There is some violence in this chapter, though minimal, please avoid if that triggers you.

The hall was loud with the rumble of eager, excited fans. They sat packed on the stands like pilchards in a can, squeezed together, all chattering and betting and eagerly waving little fans with school team logos on them. There were so many people in fact that the HVAC systems were straining, an audible rumbling over the sound of the crowd, and Seungkwan questioned himself again. If he had had any sense he’d be well away from this place, but Jihoon-hyung had dragged him with and was even now making a pillow of his shoulder. They were seated fairly in the front, but it was as if he could feel the weight of all the people press down on him.

 

“Hyung,” he asked, having to call to be heard. “Hyung, what are we doing here? This is crazy, this is a fire hazard waiting to happen.”

 

His talking must have displeased High Overlord Lee Jihoon, because he got a poke in the side and a muttered instruction not to jiggle around so much. “Soonie’s in the competition with Cheol-hyung,” his mentor said. “I’m trying to avoid his wrath about staying in my studio too much. He was really upset that you guys didn’t take care of me.”

 

Seungkwan spluttered, wanting to jerk upright like a prickled cat. “Not take care of you?” he called. “Hyung, you threw a plushie at me! A narwhal plushie! It nearly took my eye out with its horn!”

 

Jihoon sniffed. “Oh shut it, it wasn’t that bad. We’re just going to watch the taekwondo matches, okay? We don’t have to be at any of the others. Where’s that boyfriend of yours?”

 

Peeking, Seungkwan tried to see past the sea of people. “Down there somewhere?” he guessed, wiggling a finger down at the mat. “With Seokkie and Channie. I think they’re supporting the team today. And I think that’s Jun-hyung over there? Look, there to the left, isn’t that him hanging onto Minghao-hyung? What is that they have on?”

 

Jihoon cracked an eye open. “Exhibition Wushu clothing,” he yawned again, shifting to get a little more comfortable. His head dipped and he nosed his way in underneath Seungkwan’s arm, leaning pliantly to fit the other omega’s shape a little better. “They’re martial artists too. Something about the discipline of it being good. It sounded exhausting, so I didn’t listen. Wake me when they start, okay?” Determinately, he shut the eye again.

 

Seungkwan blinked down at his hyung. Somehow, he wasn’t quite sure how, one whole half of him was devoted to being a body pillow now, with his hyung’s face tucked into the curve where his chest met his throat. _To get away from the smells? Or is he feeling threatened as well?_ His hyung was more cat than he was, he knew that much from the tail and the way even his hair seemed to fluff sometimes. Self-preservation warned him not to ask, just in case his hyung decided to be frank again, so instead he wrapped his arms around him, settled into a soft purr and waited for the matches to begin.

 

They didn’t take too long, with the juniors’ matches starting. There was a lot of shouting and confused movements, and he felt a little alone in the roar of the crowd, but the quick glimpse he caught of his hyungdeul’s heads on the competitor benches made him feel a little better, as did the slumbering cat in his arms. It thrummed along his spine, gave him a little courage and allowed him to straighten his back, forming a bulwark against the press of the crowd.

 

Two matches, then a whole host of them, with Seungcheol-hyung and Soonyoung-hyung being mat referees. He got a message every now and then from Hansol or Channie or Seokkie in their group chat, and spent as much time streaming Youtube videos through his earphones as watching the taekwondo. It was only when the mats were cleared that he shook Jihoon-hyung awake again. “Hyung,” he called, jerking his shoulder. “Hyung, it’s getting to the black belt matches, you wanted to see right?”

 

Jihoon woke up, scrubbing at his face, and looked around himself. He had been irritable earlier, but the air was practically choked with adrenaline now, and most of the stands were rocking from the university cheer being chanted. “I don’t care,” he said, feeling ill-at-ease. “Come on. We’ll go and see if we can sit down there with them.”

 

Seungkwan had never been so happy in his life to stand and move to the edges of the seating area, tucking his phone in his pocket and trying not to touch anyone. Most people stayed away from his hyung, so he followed tightly in his footsteps, and he breathed out a prayer as it looked as if they were going to escape without pause. Everything went okay, right to the end where the line between their university and a competitior’s stands came, and they had to press to get through a line of what smelled… not like something he had ever smelled before. The guys had shoulders like mountains, big and heavy-set, until he swore they had some elephant in them somewhere.

 

In front of him, Jihoon-hyung twisted and turned, scooting through the tiny, one hand locked around his wrist. He tried to follow, but the guys were having fun obstructing them, and with a plink he felt the grip part from his wrist. “Hyung!” he called out, trying to stretch and reach, trying to wriggle through himself.

 

“Come on, kittie-kittie-kittie, we’ll treat you nice, come and play with us,” one of the guys joked.

 

“No thank you!” Seungkwan yelped, darting around a hand that reached for him.

 

Some of the people on their side of the university line looked over and frowned, starting to move to help, which provoked the other side into surging forward as well, until he was crushed in the middle, panting from the desire to get out.

 

“Kwan-ah!” he heard Jihoon-hyung’s light voice shout. “Kid, where are you?” A pause, then a piercingly loud “Soonyoung!”

 

Seungkwan wasn’t quite sure what happened. He only saw the last of it, but later students told him that Kwon Soonyoung stopped dead in the middle of the mat and turned, then ran and jumped higher than they had ever seen anyone jump, all to get to his mate and protect him. He could hear the shatteringly loud roar, lost his call for help in it, suffocating in the suddenly-thick scents as the pushing turned to a brawl.

 

One moment there were people all around him. In the next, there was Chwe Hansol, plucking people around like they were nothing but inconvenient bowling pins, tossing them to and fro as he battered through them. His mouth was open on a roar, but the sound was so low Seungkwan’s ears couldn’t pick it up, could just feel the pressure against his eardrums. Behind him, streaming like vicious outliers, came the rest of Seungcheol-hyung’s pack, fitting into the path he carved open for them like an ice-breaker.

 

“Seungkwanie!” Jihoon-hyung again, held up in Soonyoung-hyung’s arms. For the first time he had met him, he sounded afraid.

 

Seungkwan clung to the banister with desperate force, felt his face smack sideways as someone shouldered him aside to get away from Nonie and the pack, tried to focus through the ringing in his ears. It wasn’t even a loud sound, just a slight pop-crack as his shoulder dislocated from one of the huge bruisers around him lumbering past him to get to a screaming honey badger alpha starting a fight on their side, but he gasped from the pain, and Hansol’s face snapped up to stare at him.

 

His eyes were tiny, pupils so small Seungkwan didn’t know how he could see, but he dropped his shoulder and came charging up the steps toward him, shouldering the guy that had tried the come-on earlier out of his way like a gnat. “Kwan!” he roared, more animal than human. “Kwan! I’m coming!”

 

“Seungkwan-ah!” came Seungcheol-hyung’s roar. “Calm him! Get to him if you can!”

 

Seungkwan made the fastest decision of his life. Instead of running, he sunk to his haunches and leapt, trusting to the cat inside him. It wasn’t graceful, especially not with a dislocated arm screaming at him, but he flew straight to Hansol, who caught him in massively strong arms. Behind them, Wonwoo-hyung and Minghao-hyung leant to keep them upright, and the pack closed ranks to carry him out of there.

 

They managed to fight free of the gigantic free-for-all, joining up with a group of the other martial artists that had young kids and pre-presentation students behind them. It was a madhouse until someone intelligent slammed the fire alarm and flame-retardant foam rained down from the ceiling. It coated everyone still in the hall, and the pungent smell of it dampened the thick scent of so many bodies fighting. Seungkwan didn’t really register it. All he felt was the hot air outside as they got out, that and the terrified way Hansol still clung to him. He clung back, uncaring.

 

“Hansol-ah,” Seungcheol-hyung said. “Set him down, we have to get his arm still until one of the medics can set it. Give him space, okay? We’re not trying to hurt him. You can still hold him, we just need to get his arm strapped down.”

 

Hansol held him tighter, turned a little away and roared again.

 

“Fuck,” Soonyoung-hyung said. “Cheol-hyung, you’re gonna have to do it. I think he’s a bit too deep, and Seungkwan isn’t going to be able to calm him.”

 

 _What are you talking about?_ Seungkwan’s mind span, curiously cool, until he realised that _yes_ , there was pain and _yes,_ the person whining like that was him. Seconds later, it didn’t matter, because there was … there was….

 

“Chwe Hansol,” Seungcheol-hyung said low, deep, with a growl in his voice. “Pay. Attention. Look at me when I’m talking to you.”

 

The heavy feeling pressed down, ruffled against Seungkwan’s neck. He had never felt it before from his gentle hyung, and with a start he realised that it was the pack leader speaking, not his hyung. Hansol still fought, he could feel it in the tremble of his muscles, but slowly they started to calm a little, until he seemed to blink out of whatever fog he had been in.

 

Minutes later, as one of the tournament medics set his arm with a professional snap, he wished he was still in a fog himself. The others’ faces swam around him, but his mind slowly pulled control back himself, until he was able to stand on his own two feet.

 

* * *

 

Hours later, ensconced in their apartment, Soonyoung was still shuddering and trying to deal with the rage that had flooded him. The group had split up after Seungkwan’s arm was set and they had come here, and he had felt safe for precisely three seconds when breed-shock set in. He had already been amped for his match, but going from the mats to the stands had been like wall-diving into the instincts he normally controlled so well, and seeing his mate and Seungkwan-ah trapped like that had been like a bat to the button marked ‘instinct’. He couldn’t remember how he got there, he couldn’t even remember how they had gotten out or that he had spoken to people afterwards.

 

Now, sitting on his sofa in his apartment, trying to sip at the cup of tea that Jihoon had made for him, he tried to step down, tried to ignore the aggression that had plagued him since his childhood years, and couldn’t quite manage it. He slugged the tea back in one shot, ignoring the burn down his throat, before he carefully handed it back to Jihoon. “Excuse me,” he said with a low, raspy kind of apology and stood to go and uncouple his hanging sit-up frame from the inner door way leading to their tiny second bedroom.

 

Jihoon watched, eyebrows climbing nearly to his hairline, as Soonyoung meticulously started crumpling the bars of steel, twisting and working them so that they almost looked like a modern sculpture. He watched the muscles in his back roil, listened to the ping-twist-snap of the rubber bits flying off, and wondered precisely what was going on.

 

He had been scared too. He had been fighting too. But he had never seen a jump like that, so totally based on instinct and raw strength. He had never seen the way that one moment, Soonie had been fine, talking rationally to him, and in the next he sank down on the couch to shiver like a leaf. He had thought it a panic attack at first, until he heard the low, rolling growl and smelled the acrid scent of aggression flushing off him.

 

“Soonie,” he said as his mate finished rolling everything into a ball and started looking around for something else. “I’m expecting you in the bathroom in five minutes. I’m going to draw us a bath, ok?”

 

It wasn’t quite five minutes before Soonyoung came slinking into the bathroom, still stinking of what smelled like sublimated testosterone. In that time, Jihoon had started filling the tub, and he turned from that to help Soonyoung undress. Carefully – it wasn’t that he thought he’d hurt him, but no need to poke an angry tiger – he guided him through the movements of pulling his shoes off, stripping from the sweaty dobok, and getting into the water. Stripping himself, he settled in between his mate’s legs and sank back into silence, waiting.

 

“I’ll likely get a reprimand on my university file,” Soonyoung said colourlessly after a while as he pulled Jihoon close to himself.

 

“Nonsense,” Jihoon said crisply. “All you did was come to rescue us. The adjudication board would laugh them out of the room. You controlled yourself perfectly.” He patted Soonyoung’s knees gently. “If anything I’m worried about Hansol’s record. I didn’t know the kid had that in him.”

 

Soonyoung remained quiet for a long time. “He’s got bear in him,” he finally said reluctantly. “The rest is wolf. The kid’s got it tough, that’s why he’s so quiet all the time and he mainlines music. I once saw a clip of an adult bear hybrid charging through a concrete wall when enraged. I’m worried for him too. If Seungkwan pulls away from him now…”

 

Jihoon burst out into loud, raucous laughter, clapping his hands together. “Like fuck that’ll ever happen,” he stated blandly. “He’s so far gone he’s fucking heart eyes and syrupy voices twenty-four seven.” Feeling the body behind him calming a little, he twisted around to sit face-to-face with Soonyoung. “Listen,” he said. “Nothing of what happened there today was your fault.” He leant in to kiss the tip of Soonyoung’s scrunched nose, pecking his full cheeks. “Want to know a secret?”

 

Soonyoung relaxed a little, running his hands from Jihoon’s shoulders to his waist. “Yes please.”

 

Jihoon looked him straight in the eye. “When you leapt up to get to me I nearly came in my pants,” he admittedly blandly, patting Soonyoung’s stomach before tickling lower. “I mean, I was frightened, but that was really hot, okay? Seeing you sail through the air…” He broke off, shuddering as the memory tickled through him again. “I’m so fucking lucky everyone was stinking to high heaven of aggression, or they’d’ve smelled how fucking hot I was for you.”

 

Soonyoung blinked, staring up into Jihoon’s clear eyes. He didn’t spot any lie there, and when he caressed his thumbs over the curve of his mate’s hipbones he provoked a shudder. It was like a switch. The potent hormonal cocktail still floating through him found another outlet and he lunged. The water in the bath went everywhere as he wrapped his arms tightly around Jihoon and lurched out of the bath. He carried him just like that, wet and dripping, to their sanctuary and barely remembered to haul towels along. Throwing them down on the bed, he put his mate down only a fraction more gently and hauled his hips up, burying his face in his sweet ass.

 

Jihoon barely had a moment to breathe before Soonyoung started eating him out, but his body knew what to do by now, and his spine went pliant as he canted his hips up right as he catapulted to being horribly, hideously, embarrassingly turned on. Knotting his fingers in the haphazard towels, he swore like a savage as his alpha ate him out with fierce, hungry movements. Soonyoung was so good with foreplay normally; now, feeling him stretch and urge his little pucker open insistently as he feasted had him writhing and purring with the desire to be filled.

 

Soonyoung flipped them around, lifted Jihoon’s hips and impaled him straight onto his aching cock, pinning him in place there until his omega wiggled and squirmed, trying to get more inside him. It was barely enough, just the tip stretching him open. He grunted as Jihoon scratched at his stomach but ignored him, and made the most of the slow slide into his depths, taking it as slowly as his instincts allowed, until he seated his mate’s body flush against his with a little wiggle, then petted Jihoon’s knees down from where they wanted to curl up and hunch near his chest. “Down,” he instructed firmly. “Ride me, Jihoonie.”

 

Jihoon, cheeks flushed at the demand, did it happily, greedily. Soonyoung usually liked to curve over him when they fucked, liked to surround him with his being even if only his arms. His stomach shuddered as he started riding his tiger slowly, trying to get used to the new angle. It felt as if it speared him open almost too much, but he was so greedy for it all he did was ride faster and faster, trying to ignore the slap of his cock against his stomach and the slight distension as the huge cock in him strained against his slim build.

 

Soonyoung panted, enjoying every inch of the sight Jihoonie presented, slowly working his hips up and down to help him. His groin was so wet from his mate’s slick that it felt as if he was bathing anew in it, and curiously he reached a hand down, teased at the puffy rim that swallowed him so happily. Slowly, keeping his eyes focused on Jihoon’s glazed ones, he slicked one finger up slowly and pressed it in next to his cock, stretching him even more.

 

Jihoon’s scream filled the room, loud and lusty and wailing, and his hips stuttered to a halt as he lost his rhythm, trying to adjust again. It cost a smack from Soonyoung’s hand on his thigh to get him to start again, and he rode him like that, slowly and hungrily, until his mate had a little mercy and removed it to rub his slick into his belly.

 

“Look at yourself,” Soonyoung whispered as he felt the stretch-and-pull of the abs as his kitten rode him in rolling, easy movements. “God, I still can’t believe I’m lucky enough to have you, kitten.”

 

“…wrong,” Jihoon got out as he stilled for a second. He reached sideways, still full of his thick mate, and reached into one bedside drawer, pulling out a strip of leather. Reaching down, he linked it around Soonyoung’s thick throat, let his mark rest there as he leant his hand on his chest and started riding him again. “You’re mine. Feel that?” he panted, voice thin with urgency. “You’re mine, Kwon Soonyoung, no one else’s. From the top of your hamster head to your feet, all mine.” His nails curved, pricking into one pectoral. “Whose?” he insisted.

 

“Yours,” Soonyoung got out gutterally, trapped in an exquisite hell between wanting to dominate the slim male impaled on his cock to letting him have his way. “All of me, Jihoonie, all of it’s yours.”

 

Jihoon tightened his ass, started to move more quickly. “That’s fucking right,” he bragged. “Even when you’re so angry that you bend steel the wrong way, you’re still mine. My alpha, got it? No one else’s!” His hands trailed down, lifted to fist at his own cock before they spanned around his belly, then back to rest on Soonyoung’s strong thighs.

 

Soonyoung watched his graceful mate, imagined him tied up and bound and collared as well, riding him just like that. He made his decision in a flash, sitting up until his mate bounced on his lap. His large hands pulled at his thighs, pulled them up and apart until he rested solely in the cradle of his hands. Like that, palming his mate’s cheeks apart until they stretched as wide as they could, he fucked him hard and insistently. “You’re not going to be able to walk tomorrow,” he whispered into the smooth stretch of his neck. “I’m going to fuck you so hard you can’t remain awake, let alone walk. You wanted to collar an alpha? Well, you’d best be able to handle it.”

 

Jihoon’s body jerked at that, went soft and relaxed and needy, but he smirked as he leant in to bite Soonyoung’s neck right above the collar. “Big words, big boy,” he taunted, linking his arms around his mate to steady him against the shuddering sensation curling through him.

 

Soonyoung growled at the bite, turned and slammed his mate down to the bed to fuck him as he deserved.

 

He fulfilled his promise that night, taking Jihoon over and over again until he mewled like a little kitten from the assault, allowing him little surcease. In the moments that he gave him a small break for water, he left him with his hands cuffed behind his back, squirming against a belly that he pumped full, with cum and slick trailing thick streamers down his soft, pale thighs. He rode him until Jihoon couldn’t take it anymore and passed out, and when he came to he fucked him again, over and over, until at last he felt loose and wild and free himself, aggression spent and love the dominant emotion in his heart again. Resting there, kissing the babble of love and appreciation off his kitten’s lips as he squirmed and whined and offered Soonyoung pouty kisses, he felt the most content he had been in ages.

 

Pulling Jihoon close, spooning around him with one arm for his pillow and another draped on the full curve of his stomach, he at last let go of the feeling of fear, and fell asleep as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. Tigers can jump much, much better than people think they can. They can reach fifteen feet from a standing position with no momentum behind them, and twenty in length. If they're at full charge, it's much more. 
>   2. Wolves hunt in packs; I don't want to face an angry, pissed-off pack. 
>   3. Fun fact: I am more afraid of honey badgers than most other predators. They're vicious and think nothing of taking on enemies much larger than they are. 
>   4. Hansol is legitimately badass in this story; Seungcheol was able to make him back down, but it was close. 
>   5. A rare glimpse of Soonyoung's aggression issues. More will come as we delve into his story arc now. 
>   6. The university is going to be in so much trouble... 
> 



	16. Chapter 16

Jihoon wasn't a happy camper. He had woken up like normal, with his nose snuggled into the blankets and giving the world a cold shoulder. For long moments he had drifted between sleep and reality. Like that, thoughts twitched through his head in little fragments: pieces of songs he still wanted to write, a half-made grocery bill, purring nerves from the previous night, curiosity about what the local newspaper would have to say about yesterday's mess.

 

Grimacing, he blinked awake all the way and tried to move.

 

Worst idea ever.

 

Pain shot from the small of his back towards his neck, then down to his thighs as his body complained. It wasn't the tearing kind of pain, but a low, persistent throbbing that felt like his ass had gotten a hangover.

 

He tried again, just in case he had imagined it the first time. This time his leg swung out maybe an inch before a spasm shook him and he grunted, trying to work against the force that somehow made one big toe cramp in exactly the opposite direction as the rest of his toes on the foot.

 

There was a moment of incredulous silence before he lifted his head. "Kwon Soonyoung!" he screamed in the direction of the sound of coffee being made, rage flaming. "Kwon Soonyoung, what the fuck!" He dragged himself up with main strength, only to slip neatly out of bed and land on the rug in a pile.

 

"Jihoonie?" Soonyoung asked as he wandered in, speeding as he saw him on the floor. "Oh my god, Jihoon, what's wrong?"

 

Jihoon slapped away the arms that wanted to reach for him, digging his thumb in on one until Soonyoung winced. "You broke me, that's what's fucking wrong! I can't fucking move!"

 

Soonyoung reacted without thinking and laughed; seconds later, a lamp came for him and he had to dodge backwards. The barrage continued until he got close enough to wrap his arms around Jihoon and pick him up, ignoring the entirely surly way he pushed his face away. "Baby... no, hold on, okay? Stop hitting me! Jihoon! I didn't break you!" So saying, he carried him into the bathroom, pulling back the lid on the tub to deposit him into the hot, herby water. "Babe. I didn't break you. You're just sore, okay?"

 

"Don't even," Jihoon sulked, sinking down into the water up to his lips. "Just back away. You're never coming close to me again."

 

Soonyoung sank down on the toilet and stared at his mate. "I'm sorry," he said soberly and seriously. "I was way too wild last night. It's not an excuse and I do feel guilty. I normally have more control than this. I just..." He bit on his lip, head hanging.

 

It didn't suit Jihoon at all to see his alpha looking that hang-dog, even if he was still salty about the whole thing. "Soonyoung," he said clearly. "As much as I want to tear your leg off and beat you with it, if I can get over the fact that I'm not the typical omega, you have to accept that you might actually _be_ an alpha, and the drives that come with that."

 

Soonyoung's head just hung further. "I don't like being out of control," he finally muttered. "You know how people normally present around eighteen or nineteen, and they've mostly learnt not to be assholes by then? I presented when I was fifteen. My dad was a beta, my mom an omega. I went to bed one night and woke up an alpha two days later. I panicked so much I destroyed my room." He took a deep breath. "Not just throwing stuff around, you know? More like kindling."

 

Jihoon grunted and reached out a hand to curl around his mate's.

 

Soonyoung grabbed it gratefully. "My parents were fucking miracles. My dad immediately signed me up for martial arts and dance, just so that I could have an outlet for everything. Even with that it didn't always work. As children we learn the hierarchy of respect because our parents are not only more experienced, but bigger and stronger, right? That wasn't the case with me. Oh, my father was taller, a little bit, but I knew I was stronger. I knew I could get away with things if I pushed all the way."

 

Jihoon's lips pinched. "So what happened? How'd you get past it?"

 

Soonyoung's lips curled into a smile. "My mother, actually. She sat me down and explained very crisply that I was heading down a bad path, and that she was my goddamn mother... she actually said it like that, goddamn mother, and that she'd show me that I wasn't as tough as I thought. We lived in a kind of rural area, and no one would bother me anyway, so she'd run miles and miles with me, until I was panting on the ground, and then she'd lecture me further as she dragged me back. I thought I was so big and tough... turns out I really wasn't."

 

Tilting his head, Jihoon carefully moved his easing legs. "Is that how you learnt control?"

 

"I didn't have enough _energy_ to rebel," Soonyoung laughed. "So I guess you can thank her for my stamina as well. She's tiny, but she can run the world flat. Between that, the martial arts and the dance, they kept me busy enough that I could slowly come back to myself as my body began to settle. But it's why I hate losing control to this day, and why I'm sorry I lost it last night with you. I was aware enough that I should have gone to work it off another way."

 

Jihoon let his hand go and sat back. "I think I like your mom," he said hesitantly.

 

"So do I," Soonyoung said, leaning closer to nab the sponge. "And that's why I love you as well. Because you don't bend to gender pressure and you are one of the strongest people I know." Gently, just in case, he started to wash his mate's legs, careful around the fatigued muscles and the soft skin. They were littered with hickeys, some fading, some fresh, and he clicked his tongue. "I'll carry you to the couch afterwards and bring you your laptop, and carry tea whenever you want."

 

"Coffee," Jihoon sulked, sitting back in the warm water to sink up to his mouth. "I want coffee."

 

"One cup," Soonyoung bargained. "Then tea and backrubs."

 

Jihoon considered the offer and accepted with a nod. His morning was definitely looking up.

 

That day he got almost nothing done. Soonyoung was prompt with everything from the coffee to cuddles to breakfast, and even wired the TV up to his laptop so that he could have a big screen to work off of. He even sat on the floor with his laptop propped up on the coffee table so that Jihoon could stretch out, and it was so _easy_ to nap a little that when he checked, it was hours later and the smell of jjajangmyeon drifted through the apartment.

 

He checked his phone, checked a few increasingly anxious messages from Seokmin and Seungkwan, and shot them replies to reassure them before he considered the rest of his work. He gnawed at his lip, eyed his dissertation (still months to go), and finally looked up. "Hey," he muttered, rolling over on his side.

 

"Yes, oh north start of my desire?" Soonyoung asked as he stirred the noodle sauce, grinning at him over his shoulder.

 

"Stop that," Jihoon sulked. "Do you maybe want to, um, help me set up that tent again so that I can murder you at Rainbow Road and we can cuddle a little? With all the pillows and stuff?"

 

"Hmm. Perhaps, if you're a good boy and you eat all of your lunch?"

 

Jihoon dragged himself upright. "Fuck right off," he said sweetly. "I suddenly lost my desire for food."

 

Soonyoung's laugh filled the room. "I'll come and set it up right now. You stay where you are, kitten."

 

Just for form, Jihoon grumbled and ignored him as his mate set up the tent. Instead, scuttling to the bathroom, he took care of things there and changed pyjamas before crawling into his fort, wiggling a hole open between blankets and plushies and pillows. Sighing slowly, he relaxed and pulled his bowl closer as Soonyoung set up the TV and controller, perfectly content with the world.

 

"You know," he got out around the noodles. "It's odd how an omega that wanted to be an alpha, and an alpha that didn't want to be one ended up together." His lips quirked. "Perhaps I should write a sappy love song about it and earn millions. Would you like being mated to money?"

 

Soonyoung rolled his eyes as he crept into the tent and settled down with a groan and a pop of his spine, leaning to be fed some noodles. "I'd settle for being mated to a guy that chooses to play a game I can actually win, Freakish Reflexes-ssi. My alpha ego is delicate."

 

"As delicate as your dick," Jihoon pointed out sweetly. "Get ready for the most humiliating time in your life.”

 

* * *

 

Seungkwan sat in the uncomfortable chair outside the Dean's office, trying not to fidget too much. Clearly no amount of money had been spared; unlike the rest of the university, this section had moulded walls, the few chairs were covered in rich fabrics, and there were a couple of painting scattered here and there, along with what looked like a case filled with golf trophies. Everything seemed precisely calculated to make him as uncomfortable as possible, and he was quite aware that he looked somewhat shabby against the décor.

 

Sitting up, he winced as the printed plastic cast holding his shoulder steady bit into his skin. Yesterday seemed as dim as a nightmare, but everyone in the pack had flipped their shit in a row when he excused himself to go home. Instead, Seungcheol-hyung drove them to the hospital, paid for X-rays just in case there was damage, and paid for the cast the doctor suggested to steady everything as his ligament tear healed. It was one of the reasons why he hadn't told anyone he was coming here.

 

Last night had been bad. Hansol had withdrawn into his room and no matter how he tried to either get in or get him to come out, his boyfriend had refused. In the end Seungcheol-hyung had driven him home, told him gently that it was likely just Hansol worrying about his record, and left him to ponder that. Somehow between eleven last night and now, he had worked up the nerve to come and do this. It had to work. It _had_ to.

 

The door opened at the end of the large room and the PA nodded to him, pointing to a chair in front of a very impressive desk. Behind it, seated like he had all the time in the world to wax his moustache, the Dean transferred his gaze from his blotter to him.

 

"Boo Seungkwan-ssi," he said, sounding friendly enough. "Welcome, please sit down. How is your arm? That's a nasty bruise."

 

Seungkwan cleared his throat. "It's well enough, sir, thank you," he got out, hand spasming to cover the bruise on his face. "I... um, I wanted to come and ask if Chwe Hansol is in trouble."

 

The Dean sat back. "I can't give details about open investigations, but his record has always been stellar, surprisingly so. Are you here to lodge a complaint against him?"

 

Seungkwan's eyes widened. "No!" he got out. "No, I wanted to speak for him. If it hadn't been for those guys harassing me it would not have happened, so it's my fault, sir. I... I should be the one to bear the blame."

 

Arching an eyebrow, the man behind the desk tapped at his keyboard and looked at something there. "It says here that you are currently the holder of the Kyunghee Scholarship for Academic Merit, Boo Seungkwan-ssi. There are strict guidelines to that, and a mark like that on your record would see you being kicked from the program. Do you understand that outcome?"

 

Seungkwan pressed his lips shut tightly. "It was my fault," he croaked out. "I'm barely two months past my first heat, I should have taken more care. He just tried to save me. Please, sir."

 

The Dean shook his head and pinched at the bridge of his nose. "Whilst I appreciate your willingness and integrity in coming forward, Boo Seungkwan-ssi, the preliminary investigations already ruled the cause as mechanical failure, although our Health and Safety committee added some additional riders. Additionally the gentlemen noted to have been, ah, propositioning you came forward as well, and admitted their culpability. I can assure you that Chwe Hansol isn't in trouble, neither is his pack, nor are you."

 

Seungkwan blinked at him. "They're not?" he got out. "He's not?"

 

"Mechanical failure," the Dean said very patiently. "Even the police and the fire department accepted that. Now, I appreciate that you are perhaps ... oh, for heaven's sake. Stop that. No. Stop. Please." Fussily, he dug around in his pocket to forward his handkerchief across the desk.

 

Seungkwan blubbered his thanks as he took the soft material. the knot that had been inside him, crimping him up with what-if thoughts, melted away, washing relief through his system. Seconds later the PA was there as well, ushering him out gently, and chased a cup of coffee into him before pointing him out the door. Caught in that abrupt bubble of happiness, he marched straight across the large quad to Hansol's next class and made himself comfortable outside it.

 

Perhaps fifteen minutes later, when his rapper made it from class he stood and smiled hesitantly.

 

"Kwan?" Hansol asked, surprised. "What are you doing here?"

 

He took a deep breath. "Do you want to spend tonight at my place?" he asked as seriously as he could, hands knotting on the handkerchief. "In the, um, boyfriend way. Or hugs. Cuddles? Something?"

 

He had expected a yes, perhaps a no thanks, maybe a hug. What he got instead was the best smile he had ever seen, and a dumbfounded nod. "I thought maybe after what happened you wouldn't even want to see me again."

 

"Stupid Nonie," he managed to get out. "So stupid. Tonight, okay? Bring... um. Whatever! Just show up." Feeling abruptly shy, he turned on his heel and darted away. Behind him, down the hall, he heard Hansol's 'I'll be there!' dopplering, and smiled as he ran.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. So I was in the mood for something sweet to balance all the spicy, thus Soft Hours where Jihoon allows Soonyoung to take care of him. 
>   2. The fic is slowly moving towards the end, thank you for sticking with me for so long! 
> 



	17. Chapter 17

Jihoon bit his lip as he looked at the house in front of him. It wasn't large for the area, but it looked huge to his eyes. Soonyoung's parents were in there. He was meeting Soonyoung's parents, the most important people in his life, and he was scared shitless.

 

Somehow, Soonyoung's mom had heard of what happened at the university sports meet, and she had called to scold a little. Jihoon could still remember the look in Soonyoung's eyes when he accidentally slipped up and revealed that he had done it to protect his mate. When _that_ conversational bomb dropped, he heard the female voice on the phone screech before she started talking a mile a minute. She had apparently demanded a meeting, Soonyoung had no good excuses, and he folded like a piece of paper.

 

That led to Jihoon standing here with his heart in his mouth, small overnight bag clutched in his hands, and fear skittering deep in his mind.

 

"It'll be fine," Soonyoung murmured beside him. "Don't be afraid, Jihoonie."

 

Jihoon wanted to snap back, but there was no time for that. The front door opened before them and a small, rosy-cheeked woman stared at them with bright eyes. Shorter than Jihoon himself, comfortably round with middle age.

 

"Brace yourself," Soonyoung mumbled from the corner of his mouth.

 

"Soonyoungie!" the woman called happily as she rushed out, arms extended.

 

Jihoon barely escaped the impact by scooting back, but in the next moment he got roped in as well, until it was a three-way hug of epic proportions. She was much stronger than she looked, and had her shoulder in underneath his chin, so that he almost choked before she let go. There was kissing on the cheeks too, something he managed to get away from, but he felt exactly like a cat petted the wrong way when he escaped.

 

 _He's so like her it's not even funny_ , he thought as he watched Soonyoung peck her on the cheek, scent her and pick her up f or another hug. He could practically see the love betwen them.

 

"Im-ssi," he said with a nervous bow as they let go. "Thank you for inviting me to your house. We brought some things..."

 

Soonyoung's mother beamed up at him and came in for another hug. "Call me Eomeonim, you're Soonyoungie's mate! Let me look at you -- Soonyoung, he's way more handsome than you described? Come on in, come on in -- Soonyoung, get the bags okay? Yeobo is still at work, he'll be here a little later. Come on, Jihoon-ah, let's go sit down first...oh, why thank you, dear, but you didn't have to get anything!"

 

She chivvied Jihoon inside in front of her. The house was a little modest on the inside, but warm and friendly-feeling, with only the faintest traces of scents. He could smell a late lunch and Eomeonim's brisk scent strongly, and a fainter, older version of Soonyoung's, expressed more in tones of green things and rawhide -- nature smells, the both of them, soothing his nervousness.

 

He sat down on the couch and slowly breathed out, grateful that she chose to sit down opposite him and leave space for Soonyoung. As much as he'd argue against it, his mate at his side made him calm down a little.

 

"So!" Im-ssi said happily. "You're mated... what, a few months now? Are there kids on the way?"

 

Jihoon almost choked on his tea; at his side Soonyoung opened his mouth, but he stilled him with a press of fingers against his leg. "Not for a long time," he said honestly. "Maybe not ever. I am fertile, Eomeonim, but I don't feel as if I'm ready to have kids at the moment, not to mention that we're both young still, and we need to complete our master's degrees."

 

Soonyoung's mother looked at him with a glint in her eye. "Not that I blame you, having a child as active as Soonyoungie is _very_ tiring."

 

"Eomma!" Soonyoung complained.

 

Jihoon's smile curved into being. "How you survived with him is a mystery, Eomeonim," he played along cautiously. "He's as active as a class of preschoolers..."

 

"Jihoonie!" Soonyoung wailed, hamster cheeks puffing out cutely.

 

Grinning, Jihoon shot a look at Soonyoung's mother and saw approval lurking deep in her eyes.

 

 

They met Soonyoung's father a little later that evening. The beta was a bit taller than Soonyoung, but leaner, and the quietest, calmest person Jihoon had ever met. He had murmured his thanks for the whiskey, kissed his wife on the cheek and kidnapped Jihoon to sit on the back porch and sip some whiskey. "Just relax," he said idly. "You were starting to look a little wild around the eyes. God knows they're like a track meet when they get going."

 

Jihoon sipped slowly at his drink, curling up in the chair. "I, um, they _are_ very loud, _Abeonim_. I thought maybe he got it from your side?"

 

"No way," Soonyoung's father said with a shudder. "I'm the calm side of the family, son." He brightened a little. "After dinner we can sit in my study whilst they go for their run... or do you want to run with?"

 

Jihoon took a decisive sip. "No thank you. I'd rather not even think of running."

 

Silence fell comfortably between the two of them as they watched afternoon slowly change into twilight.

 

"Soonyoung told me that he had troubles growing up," Jihoon ventured as he twisted the glass between his fingers. "But he's one of the best alphas I know. One of the best people, never mind alpha. All my friends like him too, and he has so many fans at the university... thank you, _Abeonim_."

 

Soonyoung's father shot him a look. "You make it sound as if that's rare, Jihoon-ah... if I may call you that?"

 

Jihoon nodded. "Please do," he murmured. "And you have no idea. I'm sure people try to raise their kids right, but then university happens. I didn't think I'd ever get mated. But no matter what I did, he didn't back down."

 

"He gets that from his grandfather," Sonyoung's father opined. "My wife's father was an alpha as well, and he was just like that, stubborn to the last. We used to joke that if he didn't like his funeral, he'd get up and do it right. And then he did die just after Soonyoung's birth and he didn't get up again, and we were all devastated. Congenital heart failure. We managed to get it corrected in Soonyoung."

 

Jihoon felt dread trickle down his back. "What?" he said softly.

 

"Tigers are rare because the DNA is so prone to faulting," the man at his side explained. "It wasn't until he was five that the retro-engineering techniques were advanced enough. You shouldn't have to worry about it if you ever want children."

 

"I knew that tigers were rare," Jihoon admitted. "Just not why. I thought it was a recessive type. But now that I know... a lot of things make sense? Why he eats so healthily and exercises so much. I'll keep an eye on it, abeonim, I promise. Anything else I should be aware of?"

 

Soonyoung's father laughed into his glass. "So many things, but I'll let you find out about that the same way I did, son."

 

 

Dinner was delicious, and Jihoon begged off the post-prandial run to take his laptop to to the study to work. He was still there when a sweaty Soonyoung came to drop delicate kisses on his mouth, and Soonyoung's father laughed as he pushed him away with one foot.

 

"Out," he commanded. "Shower. Now. Please."

 

"Come and have one with me," Soonyoung wheedled outrageously.

 

Jihoon's face flamed scarlet. "Go. Away," he hissed as Soonyoung's father pretended he wasn't laughing at all.

 

Soonyoung went, but came to collect him later that night, and as they settled into the small three-quarters bed in his old room Jihoon stared at the opposite wall of the room. It felt like a timeline of his mate's early years, from the marks against the doorway to indicate height to the posters on the wall of various K-pop bands. There was a case with what looked like more than thirty trophies in it, most of them for sport of some kind. As he lay there, he thought of the question earlier, on whether they were going to have kids. Looking at the room in the dark, practically able to smell his mate growing up, he no longer felt quite so against the idea. "Soonie," he whispered, feeling the arm ar round him tighten and a sleepy noise mumbled into his hair. "I like your parents." When the arm around him tried to slip down to hike his pants down over his hip, he smacked the hand. "Don't even think of that."

 

This time Soonyoung laughed softly, pulling him closer. "They like you too," he muttered with a sleep-rough voice.

 

"They don't mind that I'm a guy and not a tiger?"

 

"Why would they?" Soonyoung asked. "You make me happy, that's all that counts. Try to sleep, baby. We have that turn at my old dancing studio tomorrow."

 

Secretly pleased, Jihoon closed his eyes, trusting in his mate's arms to keep him on the narrow bed.

 

* * *

 

The morning dawned to another run - Jihoon had no idea where Soonyoung and his mom got the energy from - and to a series of panicked SMSes for him. He fought his eye open to look at the latest, blinked and promptly coughed on his mouthful of coffee.

 

 ** _BSK:_** Hyung! Answer your phone? You know how Seokkie and Channie were hanging together? They hooked up! They actually hooked up! It's all over the first-year classes about alphas dating each other. I wish you were here to smash noses :(

 

Jihoon didn't bother typing a reply. Instead, calling, he counted down until he heard Seungkwan's sleepy voice. "Hello?" his fellow cat got out softly. "Hyung?" Softer, but no less there, another voice that sounded like Hansol.

 

Jihoon felt one eyebrow twitch. "Are those two ok?" he asked instead of demanding tea outright. "How bad is it? Cheollie is taking care of them, right?" As he spoke, he traced the indent of Soonyoung's head on the pillows, smiling at the daisy he had left on the side table for him.

 

"Seungcheol-hyung doesn't wanna overstep too much," Seungkwan explained through yawns. "That's what I heard? I mean, most people are still keeping their heads low after the sports meet. I'm just surprised myself, I thought they were both straight!"

 

"Remind me to have that sexuality talk with you when i get back," Jihoon said. "We should be there this afternoon, if things get too bad you guys can stay in the studio, okay? You two stil have the key?"

 

"Yes hyung... oh, hold on, Nonie wants to speak to you."

 

"Hyung?" Hansol asked seconds later. "I'm keeping an eye on them as well, okay? So far it's mostly just odd looks and tacky jokes. I'll look after Kwan and them. But I will go full cucumber on anyone that doesn't deserve to speak to them, I promise. Do you want me to tell Cheol-hyung that you phoned?"

 

Jihoon laughed. "I'm glad the cucumber made an impression on you. And yes, tell him we're back later today okay? We should still be in time for the potluck."

 

"Hyung!" Seungkwan called distantly. "Bring us souvenirs, please hyung!"

 

A snort. "Like I will," he teased maliciously and put the phone down immediately, ignoring the outrage that followed on their chat. As if he'd forget his dongsaeng anyway. Getting up, he hopped through the shower and cleaned up the room a little - just the bed, Soonyoung could get the rest - he wandered out to go and say hi to his new family.

 

The Jihoon of six months ago simply didn't exist any longer, and he was happy to have it that way. This one had a clingy tiger for a mate, some rest in his soul and a new love for himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>   1. And so Jihoon goes full circle and finds some happiness at last. 
> 



	18. A new beginning...

The sequel is available [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16948425).


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